We got back from San Francisco late last night, and when my alarm went off at 4:30 this morning I thought, "Bugger it, I'm staying home."
So I got up, emailed my boss that I was extending my vacation by one day, then went back to bed.
I began dreaming. I dreamed that I'd got up and gone to work. I really did.
I even dreamed that I laughingly told my boss he could disregard my email from that morning, seeing as I'd made it in after all. Of course that was when I woke up, and realized I'd only dreamed I'd gone to work.
And it's only right now that it occurs to me that perhaps I'd dreamed I'd emailed him as well. Phew. My Sent folder shows that part of my morning was real :)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I don't dream of WoW
One of today's WoW Insider articles asks readers to describe any WoW dreams they've had. For as much time as I've put into the game you'd think I would constantly dream about playing, especially as it's one of the last things I do (often for several hours) right before going to bed, but I don't recall ever having any dreams that featured WoW, and I'd know because I can remember my dreams.
So I've never dreamed about WoW (that I can recall) but I have dreamed about work before.
One of my strangest work-related dreams was related to a 3-week job I got shortly after returning to Australia in '97, where I was part of crew distributing Wheelie Bins.
In the morning we'd arrive at the storage yard and load up the back of the truck with Wheelie Bins. They came with lids on but no wheels, so they were able to be stacked on top of each other, much like giant, green plastic cups, and once the truck was loaded we'd set off to make our deliveries.
A couple of guys would start on the back of the truck and it was their job to assemble the Wheelie Bins. They'd take down down a Wheelie Bin from one of the stacks, grab a wheel one from one tub and an axle from another and snap them together. Then they'd slide the axle through the two plastic sockets on the base of the Wheelie Bin, grab another wheel and snap it onto the other end of the axle, and there you have it, a Wheelie Bin, which they'd toss off the back of the truck to the guys running along behind.
The runners' job was to catch the bin, run to a house and drop the bin off in the correct orientation (facing the street), then run back to the truck to catch another bin. Rinse & repeat. Following behind the runners was a guy with a handheld computer which had a database with every single address on our route. His job was to key in the ID number on the side of the bin with the corresponding address, as proof we'd made the delivery; he needed the bin facing the correct way so he could read the number at a glance and key it in to his computer while heading to the next house and Wheelie Bin.
As tough as it sounds, it was actually a fun job. There was only 5 or 6 of us on the crew, so there was no room for people who didn't get along or for people who didn't pull their weight. We got up early, we worked hard all day, and if someone called it quits the Foreman would go to his list and when we'd turn up at the yard the next morning there'd be a new face. This only actually happened twice during the 3-week job, which apparently was a record. The Foreman said it was not unusual to begin a job with one crew, and by the start of the second week have a completely different crew. We also set another record in that our 3-week job was actually a 4-week job, we just completed it with a week to spare. Possibly because we didn't have the turnover of other crews.
So there were two parts to the job. Assembling the Wheelie Bins on the back of the truck, and running behind the truck delivering the Wheelie Bins. As you ran along behind the truck, catching Wheelie Bin after Wheelie Bin, running from truck to house to truck again, the muscles in your legs would start to burn and you'd think, "I wish I was on the back of the truck."
The Foreman was pretty good at his job. He'd switch us up so everyone got a turn on the back of the truck, assembling the bins, and everyone took a turn running behind the truck, delivering the bins. We actually switched around several times each day, because when you were on the back of the truck assembling the bins, you were constantly bending over to get wheels & axles, then standing up to toss bins off the back of the truck, then getting a new bin and bending over to get more wheels & axles, then standing up again. All that bending over and straightening up took its toll, and your lower back started to really fucking hurt, and you'd look at the guys delivering the Wheelie Bins and you'd say to yourself, "I wish I was running along behind the truck."
This was just a 3-week job, and yet in that short three weeks I still managed to dream about work. When I told the Foreman I'd dreamed about making Wheelie Bins he said that wasn't unusual, at least one person on every one of his crews mentions dreaming about the job. I wasn't the only one on our crew, either.
Not only did I dream about making Wheelie Bins, I actually woke myself up reaching for an axle to put the wheels on the Wheelie Bin. I was actually glad I dreamed I was making the Wheelie Bins. I don't think my sleep would have been too restful if I'd dreamed I was running along behind the truck all night ;)
So I've never dreamed about WoW (that I can recall) but I have dreamed about work before.
One of my strangest work-related dreams was related to a 3-week job I got shortly after returning to Australia in '97, where I was part of crew distributing Wheelie Bins.
In the morning we'd arrive at the storage yard and load up the back of the truck with Wheelie Bins. They came with lids on but no wheels, so they were able to be stacked on top of each other, much like giant, green plastic cups, and once the truck was loaded we'd set off to make our deliveries.
A couple of guys would start on the back of the truck and it was their job to assemble the Wheelie Bins. They'd take down down a Wheelie Bin from one of the stacks, grab a wheel one from one tub and an axle from another and snap them together. Then they'd slide the axle through the two plastic sockets on the base of the Wheelie Bin, grab another wheel and snap it onto the other end of the axle, and there you have it, a Wheelie Bin, which they'd toss off the back of the truck to the guys running along behind.
The runners' job was to catch the bin, run to a house and drop the bin off in the correct orientation (facing the street), then run back to the truck to catch another bin. Rinse & repeat. Following behind the runners was a guy with a handheld computer which had a database with every single address on our route. His job was to key in the ID number on the side of the bin with the corresponding address, as proof we'd made the delivery; he needed the bin facing the correct way so he could read the number at a glance and key it in to his computer while heading to the next house and Wheelie Bin.
As tough as it sounds, it was actually a fun job. There was only 5 or 6 of us on the crew, so there was no room for people who didn't get along or for people who didn't pull their weight. We got up early, we worked hard all day, and if someone called it quits the Foreman would go to his list and when we'd turn up at the yard the next morning there'd be a new face. This only actually happened twice during the 3-week job, which apparently was a record. The Foreman said it was not unusual to begin a job with one crew, and by the start of the second week have a completely different crew. We also set another record in that our 3-week job was actually a 4-week job, we just completed it with a week to spare. Possibly because we didn't have the turnover of other crews.
So there were two parts to the job. Assembling the Wheelie Bins on the back of the truck, and running behind the truck delivering the Wheelie Bins. As you ran along behind the truck, catching Wheelie Bin after Wheelie Bin, running from truck to house to truck again, the muscles in your legs would start to burn and you'd think, "I wish I was on the back of the truck."
The Foreman was pretty good at his job. He'd switch us up so everyone got a turn on the back of the truck, assembling the bins, and everyone took a turn running behind the truck, delivering the bins. We actually switched around several times each day, because when you were on the back of the truck assembling the bins, you were constantly bending over to get wheels & axles, then standing up to toss bins off the back of the truck, then getting a new bin and bending over to get more wheels & axles, then standing up again. All that bending over and straightening up took its toll, and your lower back started to really fucking hurt, and you'd look at the guys delivering the Wheelie Bins and you'd say to yourself, "I wish I was running along behind the truck."
This was just a 3-week job, and yet in that short three weeks I still managed to dream about work. When I told the Foreman I'd dreamed about making Wheelie Bins he said that wasn't unusual, at least one person on every one of his crews mentions dreaming about the job. I wasn't the only one on our crew, either.
Not only did I dream about making Wheelie Bins, I actually woke myself up reaching for an axle to put the wheels on the Wheelie Bin. I was actually glad I dreamed I was making the Wheelie Bins. I don't think my sleep would have been too restful if I'd dreamed I was running along behind the truck all night ;)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
No words necessary
A little over a week ago, BRK made one of his uncommon non-WoW related Blog Posts. Unlike when he normally deviates from WoW-related posts, this one was not an Airman Howell story from his U.S.A.F. days.
I normally get my morning cup of coffee then browse to BRK's site to have a read and maybe a chuckle or two, but when his Blog loaded this morning there were no laughs forthcoming, not on this day.
Orion, watch out for little Thor, and make sure he doesn't reroll as a Paladin. (apologies to Crucifer)
BRK, and especially Mrs BRK, my prayers and thoughts are with you on this day.
I normally get my morning cup of coffee then browse to BRK's site to have a read and maybe a chuckle or two, but when his Blog loaded this morning there were no laughs forthcoming, not on this day.
Orion, watch out for little Thor, and make sure he doesn't reroll as a Paladin. (apologies to Crucifer)
BRK, and especially Mrs BRK, my prayers and thoughts are with you on this day.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Bad for business
I have a popular theory (popular with me ;) that shareholders, and Wall Street in general, are bad for business, because they take the focus of your company away from satisfying your customers and turn it towards satisfying your shareholders, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You're in business to make money, these people have given you their money to fund your business and so they expect to see a reasonable return on their investment, because it's your business but it's their money.
The problem with this, as I said, is that you focus too much on making your shareholders happy, and in doing so drive customers away. This same principle applies to all businesses, regardless of size or source of funding. The little corner store still needs to make money. Mom & Pop can't survive on the love of their customers alone, they need their customers' money, too. But if they charge their customers too much, they drive their customers away, and the increased profits they were hoping to see from raising their prices are outweighed by the reduced volume of sales. It's a fine line they tread.
The automotive industry suffers from this shortsightedness, as does its investors. Sales slump, revenues are down, shareholders are unhappy because they're not seeing the same ROI they've becomed used to, so what do the auto companies do? They need to increase profit so they cut costs by eliminating positions, by closing down plants, greatly reducing expenses and overheads. It's a Lose-Lose situation. By shutting down factories and eliminating workers they've decreased future production so next year, sales will be down and revenues will be down, so profits will be down, shareholders will be screaming (again), and they'll be forced to cut costs, again. Vicious cycle.
The cafeteria in my building used to be pretty good up until recently. About a month ago Casey, the Pasta Bar Chef, told me he was going on vacation for the next week, so his Pasta Bar would be shut down. We had several 'bars' in the cafeteria. There was a mexican bar where you could get anything from a burrito to a taco to a quesadilla. The Pasta bar, and next to it the pizza bar which made calzones to order. Then there was the Entree bar where you could get, on any given day, a quarter chicken and 2 sides, or roast turkey & 2 sides, or roast beef & 2 sides, you get the picture. There was the grill for burgers, and the sandwich section, which also did wraps, made-to-order, and the custom salad section, which did made-to-order salads.
A month ago Casey told me he'd be gone for a week, so that next week I ate Wraps from the sandwich section and ignored the empty pasta bar behind me. Two weeks ago I popped in to welcome Casey back and get my usual fettuccini dish, but when I walked in the place was empty, even for 11:30am. I walked over to the Pasta Bar and it was empty of fixings with no sign of Casey. The pizza and mexican sections were also shut down. I got a turkey wrap (again), took it to the cashier and asked her what was going on. Apparently the Manager decided they didn't have enough money to buy pizza, pasta & mexican food supplies, so they shut down half their operation.
This is akin to Ford or GM experiencing a shortfall in revenue, firing people and closing down plants.
With no money to buy the ingredients to stock the cafeteria, management cut costs by closing operations, thus limiting their customer's choices.
Now what do you think is going to happen?
People like me are going to go down there, as I did today, and when they see the place is empty and devoid of choices, instead of just making do, and getting a burger or a sandwich, they'll do as I did and vote with their feet. They'll take their money and go somewhere else.
The decision to cut costs by cutting production seriously impacts future revenue. And when you're not the only game in town people are going to take their business elsewhere.
When we first moved into this building the cafeteria was packed with people at lunchtime. The four registers were fully staffed and there were still lines of people waiting to pay. You had trouble finding empty seats in the dining area so people would bring their lunches back up to the breakroom. They must have made a lot of money during the first few months we moved into the building, then demand slowly petered off, people got sick of the same old food every day and went outside to see what else was there. Even if it was just the burger shack across the road, or the taco stand up the street, it was a different burger and a different taco. Despite this, if you went to the cafeteria at noon it was still very busy.
Then demand dropped right off, the cafeteria ran short of money, and instead of trying to work out how to make their customers happy and bring them back, they cut costs, they cut operations, they drove even more customers away. This cannot end well.
The lesson of the day is that even though you're in business to make money, if you only focus on making money you might blind yourself to the big picture; and that is that you cannot make money if you have no business.
About the same time as Casey told me he was going on vacation, people were outside handing out fliers trying to get one of the cafeteria's Chefs reinstated, after she was fired for allegedly being rude to customers. The flier claimed she was really fired for trying to organize her coworkers. As a government employee I can tell you that government employees are usually very pro-union, so if someone working in a cafeteria that services a government building is fired for being pro-union, many of the government employees who would normally eat at that cafeteria will stop eating there, out of support and solidarity (even if they're in different unions).
A decision to fire a worker for trying to organize your staff may seem like a good idea. If your staff are not organized and don't belong to a union, you can continue to pay them lower than industry standard wages. You can keep costs down and pass those savings on to your customers in lower prices, right? Yeah, like you're really going to do that. The money you save in not paying higher wages is going to go straight into your pocket.
So what happened here?
If the chef was fired for allegedly trying to organize her coworkers, the cafeteria was focused on one thing, the bottom line, keeping costs down and maximizing profits. When customers began protesting about her being fired, as I'm sure happened, management would have insisted that she was fired for being rude to customers, and they would have ignored those customers who said she was never rude to them. Then the money began to run out so management made the decision to cut costs and reduce the options available to their customers.
The bottom line is that management was focused on the bottom line instead of keeping their customers happy.
Perhaps the Chef did get fired for being rude to a couple of customers who felt compelled to complain to management. When hundreds of customers then complained about her being fired, who should management have listened to? One or two offended customers? Or hundreds of customers demanding she be rehired? Perhaps she was rude to one or two customers, but by listening to just a couple of customers and ignoring hundreds of others, the restaurant has signed its own death warrant.
I hope the new owners do a better job of taking care of their customers than the current owners.
The problem with this, as I said, is that you focus too much on making your shareholders happy, and in doing so drive customers away. This same principle applies to all businesses, regardless of size or source of funding. The little corner store still needs to make money. Mom & Pop can't survive on the love of their customers alone, they need their customers' money, too. But if they charge their customers too much, they drive their customers away, and the increased profits they were hoping to see from raising their prices are outweighed by the reduced volume of sales. It's a fine line they tread.
The automotive industry suffers from this shortsightedness, as does its investors. Sales slump, revenues are down, shareholders are unhappy because they're not seeing the same ROI they've becomed used to, so what do the auto companies do? They need to increase profit so they cut costs by eliminating positions, by closing down plants, greatly reducing expenses and overheads. It's a Lose-Lose situation. By shutting down factories and eliminating workers they've decreased future production so next year, sales will be down and revenues will be down, so profits will be down, shareholders will be screaming (again), and they'll be forced to cut costs, again. Vicious cycle.
The cafeteria in my building used to be pretty good up until recently. About a month ago Casey, the Pasta Bar Chef, told me he was going on vacation for the next week, so his Pasta Bar would be shut down. We had several 'bars' in the cafeteria. There was a mexican bar where you could get anything from a burrito to a taco to a quesadilla. The Pasta bar, and next to it the pizza bar which made calzones to order. Then there was the Entree bar where you could get, on any given day, a quarter chicken and 2 sides, or roast turkey & 2 sides, or roast beef & 2 sides, you get the picture. There was the grill for burgers, and the sandwich section, which also did wraps, made-to-order, and the custom salad section, which did made-to-order salads.
A month ago Casey told me he'd be gone for a week, so that next week I ate Wraps from the sandwich section and ignored the empty pasta bar behind me. Two weeks ago I popped in to welcome Casey back and get my usual fettuccini dish, but when I walked in the place was empty, even for 11:30am. I walked over to the Pasta Bar and it was empty of fixings with no sign of Casey. The pizza and mexican sections were also shut down. I got a turkey wrap (again), took it to the cashier and asked her what was going on. Apparently the Manager decided they didn't have enough money to buy pizza, pasta & mexican food supplies, so they shut down half their operation.
This is akin to Ford or GM experiencing a shortfall in revenue, firing people and closing down plants.
With no money to buy the ingredients to stock the cafeteria, management cut costs by closing operations, thus limiting their customer's choices.
Now what do you think is going to happen?
People like me are going to go down there, as I did today, and when they see the place is empty and devoid of choices, instead of just making do, and getting a burger or a sandwich, they'll do as I did and vote with their feet. They'll take their money and go somewhere else.
The decision to cut costs by cutting production seriously impacts future revenue. And when you're not the only game in town people are going to take their business elsewhere.
When we first moved into this building the cafeteria was packed with people at lunchtime. The four registers were fully staffed and there were still lines of people waiting to pay. You had trouble finding empty seats in the dining area so people would bring their lunches back up to the breakroom. They must have made a lot of money during the first few months we moved into the building, then demand slowly petered off, people got sick of the same old food every day and went outside to see what else was there. Even if it was just the burger shack across the road, or the taco stand up the street, it was a different burger and a different taco. Despite this, if you went to the cafeteria at noon it was still very busy.
Then demand dropped right off, the cafeteria ran short of money, and instead of trying to work out how to make their customers happy and bring them back, they cut costs, they cut operations, they drove even more customers away. This cannot end well.
The lesson of the day is that even though you're in business to make money, if you only focus on making money you might blind yourself to the big picture; and that is that you cannot make money if you have no business.
About the same time as Casey told me he was going on vacation, people were outside handing out fliers trying to get one of the cafeteria's Chefs reinstated, after she was fired for allegedly being rude to customers. The flier claimed she was really fired for trying to organize her coworkers. As a government employee I can tell you that government employees are usually very pro-union, so if someone working in a cafeteria that services a government building is fired for being pro-union, many of the government employees who would normally eat at that cafeteria will stop eating there, out of support and solidarity (even if they're in different unions).
A decision to fire a worker for trying to organize your staff may seem like a good idea. If your staff are not organized and don't belong to a union, you can continue to pay them lower than industry standard wages. You can keep costs down and pass those savings on to your customers in lower prices, right? Yeah, like you're really going to do that. The money you save in not paying higher wages is going to go straight into your pocket.
So what happened here?
If the chef was fired for allegedly trying to organize her coworkers, the cafeteria was focused on one thing, the bottom line, keeping costs down and maximizing profits. When customers began protesting about her being fired, as I'm sure happened, management would have insisted that she was fired for being rude to customers, and they would have ignored those customers who said she was never rude to them. Then the money began to run out so management made the decision to cut costs and reduce the options available to their customers.
The bottom line is that management was focused on the bottom line instead of keeping their customers happy.
Perhaps the Chef did get fired for being rude to a couple of customers who felt compelled to complain to management. When hundreds of customers then complained about her being fired, who should management have listened to? One or two offended customers? Or hundreds of customers demanding she be rehired? Perhaps she was rude to one or two customers, but by listening to just a couple of customers and ignoring hundreds of others, the restaurant has signed its own death warrant.
I hope the new owners do a better job of taking care of their customers than the current owners.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Football vs Footy
After moving back to Australia last year, Mike250 has introduced his two little fellas to the noble sport of Aussie Rules aka Footy (which confusingly is a slang name for both the game and the ball).
This is just one of the things Americans and Australians have in common, we're both HUGE sports nuts; sports plays a big role in both cultures. What can we say, we love our sports. But while that is something we have in common, it's also a big difference between us.
Let's take a look at Football, both U.S. Football and Aussie Rules/Footy.
In most cases American kids won't start playing Football until they're in High School. They'll play Little League Baseball prior to that, and maybe throw the ol' pigskin around with Dad or their mates, brothers, etc, but in the U.S. Football usually begins in High School. In Australia it's not uncommon for the kids to kick the footy around at a very young age, but the Aussies also have programs to start the kids playing Footy at a much younger age than in the U.S.
In the U.S. when you start playing Football, as mentioned, you usually play for your school, and Leagues are set up where schools will play off against each other.
In Australia it's more like Little League in the U.S., where the team you play for is not affiliated with a school (although in some cases it may be), but instead often represents your home town. In Melbourne they will often set up "Little Leagues" with teams modeled after those in either the Victorian Football Association or the Australian Football League, just like when your 8-year old plays Baseball for the Dodgers.
By the time Aussie kids are old enough to where they would have only just started playing Football for their High School in the U.S., they've already been playing Footy in Australia for several years. At this point they may even move out of their "Little League" team and start playing for the Under 14s or Under 16s team for their home town. This is still a similar format to U.S. Football, where you have the High School team representing the town, playing league games against other towns' teams.
The big difference comes at 18 years of age, which is when most kids, in both countries, graduate High School and enter the work force or move on to College.
In the U.S., unless you're good enough to make the college team, your Football "career" is usually over at this point. You might play a game of touch at the park with your mates every couple of months or so, but you're probably never again going to play Football at anything remotely resembling a professional level.
In Australia when you turn 18 and go to college or enter the work force, your Football "career" is far from over. In fact it's only over if you want it to be. Many Australian towns host not just one Football team, but two, or even three, although they're actually all the same team.
For example, my hometown of Traralgon has the Maroons, and there's the Maroons Seniors made up not of the oldest players, but of the best players. These are the guys who could be playing in the VFA or AFL if they were just a little bit better, or perhaps they will be in a year or two when they get some experience under their belt. There's the Maroons B-grade team for the players taking a break from Seniors, or who maybe aren't quite good enough to make the cut. Then to really rub the salt in there's the C-grade: "No offense, mate, but you're not quite good enough to be a second rate footballer."
So in the U.S., if you don't get into a College Football team, that's pretty much it. In Australia, if you can keep up with the young bucks, you can keep playing Footy well into your 30s. If you stay in shape and don't get injured too badly, you can even play Footy for your home town when you're in your 40s. Of course you might be in the B-grade or C-grade squad, but there's still an option for you to pull on the boots and have a go.
This is the big difference between the two cultures. We both love our sports, but after turning 20 years old, while many Aussies are able to continue playing the sport they love, many Americans have no choice but to become the stereotypical Armchair/Watercooler Quarterback.
This is just one of the things Americans and Australians have in common, we're both HUGE sports nuts; sports plays a big role in both cultures. What can we say, we love our sports. But while that is something we have in common, it's also a big difference between us.
Let's take a look at Football, both U.S. Football and Aussie Rules/Footy.
In most cases American kids won't start playing Football until they're in High School. They'll play Little League Baseball prior to that, and maybe throw the ol' pigskin around with Dad or their mates, brothers, etc, but in the U.S. Football usually begins in High School. In Australia it's not uncommon for the kids to kick the footy around at a very young age, but the Aussies also have programs to start the kids playing Footy at a much younger age than in the U.S.
In the U.S. when you start playing Football, as mentioned, you usually play for your school, and Leagues are set up where schools will play off against each other.
In Australia it's more like Little League in the U.S., where the team you play for is not affiliated with a school (although in some cases it may be), but instead often represents your home town. In Melbourne they will often set up "Little Leagues" with teams modeled after those in either the Victorian Football Association or the Australian Football League, just like when your 8-year old plays Baseball for the Dodgers.
By the time Aussie kids are old enough to where they would have only just started playing Football for their High School in the U.S., they've already been playing Footy in Australia for several years. At this point they may even move out of their "Little League" team and start playing for the Under 14s or Under 16s team for their home town. This is still a similar format to U.S. Football, where you have the High School team representing the town, playing league games against other towns' teams.
The big difference comes at 18 years of age, which is when most kids, in both countries, graduate High School and enter the work force or move on to College.
In the U.S., unless you're good enough to make the college team, your Football "career" is usually over at this point. You might play a game of touch at the park with your mates every couple of months or so, but you're probably never again going to play Football at anything remotely resembling a professional level.
In Australia when you turn 18 and go to college or enter the work force, your Football "career" is far from over. In fact it's only over if you want it to be. Many Australian towns host not just one Football team, but two, or even three, although they're actually all the same team.
For example, my hometown of Traralgon has the Maroons, and there's the Maroons Seniors made up not of the oldest players, but of the best players. These are the guys who could be playing in the VFA or AFL if they were just a little bit better, or perhaps they will be in a year or two when they get some experience under their belt. There's the Maroons B-grade team for the players taking a break from Seniors, or who maybe aren't quite good enough to make the cut. Then to really rub the salt in there's the C-grade: "No offense, mate, but you're not quite good enough to be a second rate footballer."
So in the U.S., if you don't get into a College Football team, that's pretty much it. In Australia, if you can keep up with the young bucks, you can keep playing Footy well into your 30s. If you stay in shape and don't get injured too badly, you can even play Footy for your home town when you're in your 40s. Of course you might be in the B-grade or C-grade squad, but there's still an option for you to pull on the boots and have a go.
This is the big difference between the two cultures. We both love our sports, but after turning 20 years old, while many Aussies are able to continue playing the sport they love, many Americans have no choice but to become the stereotypical Armchair/Watercooler Quarterback.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Engineers!!! Let's RIDE!!!
The buzz from the 'Net and WoWInsider is that at 80, Engineers can make motorbikes. Wrath's lvl 80 Mount does not fly or go faster, it allows you to carry passenger/s, ergo, the Engineers motorbike comes with a sidecar:
This is the Alliance version. Apparently the Horde version comes in Red! Oh, yeah!
Now I just need to get one of my Horde Toons to 70, then power level Engineering :P
I'm looking at this Bike, which carries passengers, and I'm thinking this could totally change WoW's BGs. Think Mounted Combat!!!
The following BG Ideas are pure speculations.
Pair up with someone and join the queue as a Group (pair) and assign a Driver and, by default, a Passenger.
In the vehicle-only BGs there is no Dismounting and all the Battles are unforgiving; you can only die one death, just like in the Arenas. When your vehicle is destroyed it's Game Over for you & your partner.
The Driver: As the Driver you have complete control of the vehicle. You're responsible for the safety of you and your passenger, who's just along for the ride. You can use spells and abilities, but using any spells/abilities with a Cast Time will make you lose control of the vehicle while the Spell is being Cast. Only by using Instant Cast spells can you remain in complete control of the vehicle.
The Passenger: You have absolutely no control over the vehicle. You're at the whim of your Driver. You are free to use/cast any Spells/Abilities, including those with Cast Timers, without penalty. Keep in mind that if you're targeting one vehicle but your Driver is focused on another, your Target may very well move out of Range of your spell before it's cast. Coordination between Driver and Passenger is crucial. As well as Spells & Abilities, you may also Melee or Auto-attack other vehicles if they're close enough. The Driver may also perform Melee attacks, and may do so without losing control of the vehicle.
The Vehicle: Spells and Attacks target & affect the Vehicle ONLY. They do not affect the Driver or Passenger, and thus Driver/Passenger Resilience or Spell/Magic Resists are irrelevant in vehicle-to-vehicle combat. The Armor and "Health" of the vehicle is the combined Armor and Health of the Driver and Passenger, plus a bonus for being a Vehicle. These are the only Character Stats that affect Vehicles.
Now let's look at the (imaginary) Battlegrounds.
The first Vehicle-specific BG is little more than a coliseum. An open (albeit enclosed) arena with a few obstacles here, some ramps and hills there, but mostly nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It's a very simple Arena-type BG with just one strategy: Kill or Be Killed. When vehicles are destroyed they explode, but will remain in the BG as a smoking wreck (potentially providing cover) until the battle is over.
The Driver and Passenger of the last remaining vehicle receives 100 Vehicle Points. Everyone (inc. the Winning Team) gets 10 points for each vehicle to which they did 51% or more damage, and 10 points for each vehicle on which they delivered the KB. VPs are just like Honor and Arena Points, and can only be used to purchase Vehicle-specific Trinkets, such as:
"Armor Plating - Equip: Increase Vehicle Armor by 25%."
or
"NO2 - Use: Increase Vehicle speed by 50% for 10 seconds (1 min cooldown). *WARNING - Vehicle steering is disabled during use!*"
Just as the current Arenas allow Teams of 2v2, 3v3, etc, the Vehicle Arenas also allow Teams to form up and battle each other. In Arena-type battles Victory VPs are divided among the winning team, so the members of a winning 2v2 would only get 50 VPs each, a 3v3 Team would get 33 VPs each, and a 4v4 would receive 25 VPs each. There would be no bonus VPs for Damage done and vehicle KBs.
As well as the Arena-type BGs, there would also be race tracks where Vehicles attempt to complete a designated number of laps while simultaneously destroying each other and attempting to avoid being destroyed. Collision detection between vehicles would exist during these races, thus destroyed vehicles coming to rest in the middle of the track would present obstacles to be avoided on future laps.
One track would be a typical Nascar oval track. The second would be a simple Indy Car street track. And the dastardly third would be a Figure of Eight where vehicles must avoid each other at the intersection in the middle of the track. Collision detection would make the Figure of Eight track very interesting indeed >:)
Even if Blizzard don't do any BGs like these, it will still be awesome to have motorbike mounts in WoW :)
Expect the price of the Mats needed to power level Engineering to skyrocket once the first motorbikes appear around Shattrath. I just hope they're not some insanely, hard-to-get PvP reward. If they're a 450 Engineering Recipe I'd be more than happy to spend 10,000 gold getting there :P
This is the Alliance version. Apparently the Horde version comes in Red! Oh, yeah!
Now I just need to get one of my Horde Toons to 70, then power level Engineering :P
I'm looking at this Bike, which carries passengers, and I'm thinking this could totally change WoW's BGs. Think Mounted Combat!!!
The following BG Ideas are pure speculations.
Pair up with someone and join the queue as a Group (pair) and assign a Driver and, by default, a Passenger.
In the vehicle-only BGs there is no Dismounting and all the Battles are unforgiving; you can only die one death, just like in the Arenas. When your vehicle is destroyed it's Game Over for you & your partner.
The Driver: As the Driver you have complete control of the vehicle. You're responsible for the safety of you and your passenger, who's just along for the ride. You can use spells and abilities, but using any spells/abilities with a Cast Time will make you lose control of the vehicle while the Spell is being Cast. Only by using Instant Cast spells can you remain in complete control of the vehicle.
The Passenger: You have absolutely no control over the vehicle. You're at the whim of your Driver. You are free to use/cast any Spells/Abilities, including those with Cast Timers, without penalty. Keep in mind that if you're targeting one vehicle but your Driver is focused on another, your Target may very well move out of Range of your spell before it's cast. Coordination between Driver and Passenger is crucial. As well as Spells & Abilities, you may also Melee or Auto-attack other vehicles if they're close enough. The Driver may also perform Melee attacks, and may do so without losing control of the vehicle.
The Vehicle: Spells and Attacks target & affect the Vehicle ONLY. They do not affect the Driver or Passenger, and thus Driver/Passenger Resilience or Spell/Magic Resists are irrelevant in vehicle-to-vehicle combat. The Armor and "Health" of the vehicle is the combined Armor and Health of the Driver and Passenger, plus a bonus for being a Vehicle. These are the only Character Stats that affect Vehicles.
Now let's look at the (imaginary) Battlegrounds.
The first Vehicle-specific BG is little more than a coliseum. An open (albeit enclosed) arena with a few obstacles here, some ramps and hills there, but mostly nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It's a very simple Arena-type BG with just one strategy: Kill or Be Killed. When vehicles are destroyed they explode, but will remain in the BG as a smoking wreck (potentially providing cover) until the battle is over.
The Driver and Passenger of the last remaining vehicle receives 100 Vehicle Points. Everyone (inc. the Winning Team) gets 10 points for each vehicle to which they did 51% or more damage, and 10 points for each vehicle on which they delivered the KB. VPs are just like Honor and Arena Points, and can only be used to purchase Vehicle-specific Trinkets, such as:
"Armor Plating - Equip: Increase Vehicle Armor by 25%."
or
"NO2 - Use: Increase Vehicle speed by 50% for 10 seconds (1 min cooldown). *WARNING - Vehicle steering is disabled during use!*"
Just as the current Arenas allow Teams of 2v2, 3v3, etc, the Vehicle Arenas also allow Teams to form up and battle each other. In Arena-type battles Victory VPs are divided among the winning team, so the members of a winning 2v2 would only get 50 VPs each, a 3v3 Team would get 33 VPs each, and a 4v4 would receive 25 VPs each. There would be no bonus VPs for Damage done and vehicle KBs.
As well as the Arena-type BGs, there would also be race tracks where Vehicles attempt to complete a designated number of laps while simultaneously destroying each other and attempting to avoid being destroyed. Collision detection between vehicles would exist during these races, thus destroyed vehicles coming to rest in the middle of the track would present obstacles to be avoided on future laps.
One track would be a typical Nascar oval track. The second would be a simple Indy Car street track. And the dastardly third would be a Figure of Eight where vehicles must avoid each other at the intersection in the middle of the track. Collision detection would make the Figure of Eight track very interesting indeed >:)
Even if Blizzard don't do any BGs like these, it will still be awesome to have motorbike mounts in WoW :)
Expect the price of the Mats needed to power level Engineering to skyrocket once the first motorbikes appear around Shattrath. I just hope they're not some insanely, hard-to-get PvP reward. If they're a 450 Engineering Recipe I'd be more than happy to spend 10,000 gold getting there :P
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Time is relative
We slept in this morning, and by slept in I mean until 9:30 when the in-laws rang & left a message (we didn't pick up coz they'd just woken us up), then they called again about 5 minutes later. Liz picked up but too late so she called them back and chewed them out, for calling back so soon. Seriously, they call our landline and hang up without leaving a message, then they call my cell phone, and hang up, then they call Liz's phone and hang up, then maybe they'll call the landline again. Just leave a freaking message and we'll call you back (when we're ready ;)
So it was after 2pm by the time we dropped the kids there. Sometimes I don't know why we had kids. They spent most of this week at the in-laws, we got them back yesterday, they spent the night with us, then we dumped them back on the in-laws again.
We hit the Post Office and did a bit of shopping and when we got home it was 6pm??? How did it get to 6pm so quick?
A few hours later Liz said she was bored, and hungry, so we headed out to catch a movie and have dinner...in that order. So it was that 11pm we found ourselves wondering where to have dinner, and ended up eating at "In 'n' Out". We were not the only ones at In 'n' Out. The place was actually very busy, but who takes their young children out for burgers at close to midnight?
The same people that take their kids shopping at Super Walmart at midnight, apparently.
Now our kids were spending the night with their grandparents, and were probably (hopefully) in bed a looong time ago, so we're okay to go shopping after midnight. But seriously, what kind of parents go shopping with their kids at midnight? It was not just one, single, isolated case; there were several families with young children out shopping past midnight.
The strangest though was not the young families out shopping, but the guy riding one of those motorized scooters with several items in the basket on front. He stopped beside me, held out his hand, and asked me for change.
Dude, if you don't have any money, just how the hell do you expect to pay for those items in the cart? Or is that why you're bumming money off people? Do you expect us to pay for your groceries?
How cool would that be? Getting complete strangers to pay for your groceries. You don't have to win a competition for a shopping spree; Just visit your local supermarket, load up your cart, then hit up your fellow shoppers for spare change. Pretty good idea, until you run into people, like me, who don't fall for your cunning plan. Now get out of here! Go find someone a little more gullible, I mean generous. Those two are interchangeable, right?
So it was after 2pm by the time we dropped the kids there. Sometimes I don't know why we had kids. They spent most of this week at the in-laws, we got them back yesterday, they spent the night with us, then we dumped them back on the in-laws again.
We hit the Post Office and did a bit of shopping and when we got home it was 6pm??? How did it get to 6pm so quick?
A few hours later Liz said she was bored, and hungry, so we headed out to catch a movie and have dinner...in that order. So it was that 11pm we found ourselves wondering where to have dinner, and ended up eating at "In 'n' Out". We were not the only ones at In 'n' Out. The place was actually very busy, but who takes their young children out for burgers at close to midnight?
The same people that take their kids shopping at Super Walmart at midnight, apparently.
Now our kids were spending the night with their grandparents, and were probably (hopefully) in bed a looong time ago, so we're okay to go shopping after midnight. But seriously, what kind of parents go shopping with their kids at midnight? It was not just one, single, isolated case; there were several families with young children out shopping past midnight.
The strangest though was not the young families out shopping, but the guy riding one of those motorized scooters with several items in the basket on front. He stopped beside me, held out his hand, and asked me for change.
Dude, if you don't have any money, just how the hell do you expect to pay for those items in the cart? Or is that why you're bumming money off people? Do you expect us to pay for your groceries?
How cool would that be? Getting complete strangers to pay for your groceries. You don't have to win a competition for a shopping spree; Just visit your local supermarket, load up your cart, then hit up your fellow shoppers for spare change. Pretty good idea, until you run into people, like me, who don't fall for your cunning plan. Now get out of here! Go find someone a little more gullible, I mean generous. Those two are interchangeable, right?
Friday, August 01, 2008
Who's in your Facebook?
What does it say about your school days when you're a fan of Facebook and finding old friends, but that you'd rather not look up your old classmates? Or if you do find them, that you'd rather not send them a Friend request.
Yeah, there's a handful of people that I still (sort of) keep in touch with from decades gone by, and there's probably a few others that I'd consider sending a Friend request if I found them, but when I think back on my school days, and think of my classmates of yesteryear, most of them can pretty much go fuck themselves.
It occurs to me that I'm letting my son down, perhaps, by not being the father to him that my father was to me. Then again, my son is growing up in a far different world than that in which I grew up.
I don't recall when or how it started but my father taught me how to fight from a very early age. We'd wrestle on the living room floor and I'd try my hardest to beat him. Picture a 6 y/old using all his strength against a grown man. I learned how to slip holds, apply arm bars and hammer locks, how to endure pain (& lack of oxygen) while working out an escape plan. That was one of the lessons my father taught me.
Later when I went to school I joined the kids on the playground in the mock battles that kids in schools in most countries around the world probably hold. Picture an 8 y/old well versed in wrestling, and used to using every last ounce of his strength in an effort to overcome a much larger, far stronger opponent, suddenly taking on kids his own size. In my naivety I had no idea that I was one of the toughest kids in school. If my school had had a wrestling team, I'd have probably kicked arse.
I had a blast wrestling with all of the other boys, but apparently they didn't have as much fun wrestling with me. I was devastated the day one of my friends stopped me from joining one of our battles, telling me I was too rough, that the other kids didn't want me to take part. Thinking back, I'm surprised I never seriously hurt anyone. I never actually became The Toughest Kid in School because while I love wrestling, I hate fighting. I'd talk my way out of most fights if I could, and if I couldn't, rather than fight back I'd just try to stop my opponent from hurting me.
I recall during one Physical Education (Gym) class we were playing a game of baseball. I was one of the basemen. One of the more athletic guys (who was considered one of the toughest kids in school) made a good hit and rounded the bases, stopping at mine. He then tried to be intimidating and shove me off the base. I resisted so he threw a mock punch at my face. I caught his fist and twisting it, applied a standing Arm Bar, then used that leverage to drive him face first (literally) into the ground. Then I let go.
He jumped up and called out to the P.E. Teacher, "Did you see that?"
The P.E. Teacher had seen it, as did probably everyone present, because he was umpiring the game and so watching the action very closely. So not only had our Teacher seen me drive this guy into the ground, he'd seen him shove me first, then throw a punch at my face. I forget exactly what he said but he clearly felt my schoolmate got exactly what he deserved.
One time I was given Out in a game of Cricket when I accidentally played the ball back onto my own wicket. Given the budget of our public school we just used one-piece, solid metal wickets with the bails welded on top, instead of the 5-piece wooden wickets used in most games. After I struck it, the ball slowly rolled backwards along the ground and tapped the metal wickets behind me. The guy playing Keeper appealed and our Teacher declared me Out. I was a bit ticked at this, and let out an incredulous yell "What?!" because I didn't believe the ball had struck the wickets hard enough to dislodge the bails. Yes, they were one-piece metal wickets, so the bails couldn't be dislodged, but my opinion is that had the wickets been made of wood, the bails would have remained atop the wickets.
My classmates were quite amused by my yelped "What?!" and most likely mistook it for confusion on my part, thus implying ignorance of the rules of Cricket. School kids love to make fun of kids who aren't as smart as them, so I was the brunt of much teasing in the locker room after the game. I sat there in raging silence, getting madder and madder as my schoolmates kept up their incessant teasing, and eventually I felt my top lip begin to quiver and curl up in an unmistakable snarl. I tried to stop it but with my schoolmates relentless teasing that was impossible.
When my schoolmates saw my lip begin quivering it then became the focus of the teasing, until they realized it was not the quivering lip of someone almost in tears but the snarling lip of someone trying very, very hard not to kill someone. And so they stopped teasing me, all but the one kid who'd been the Keeper, so everyone literally piled onto him to make him shut up. Which is kind of funny, now that I think about it. They were having lots of fun teasing me, but when they realized how far they'd gone, and that I was desperately trying to hold back the green machine they quickly shut up, and were equally quick to shut down the one guy who didn't want to stop.
They had no qualms with teasing me to the point of what they thought were tears, but when it became obvious that I was actually getting really pissed off, they stopped. Some of who were considered the toughest kids in school were willing to tease me up until it looked like I was going to fight back, and then they stopped. Looking back on this, I think I probably had a reputation as someone who wouldn't fight back (in fact I lost the fights I did get into because I wouldn't fight back), but I think everyone also remembered that I was the one who'd been asked not to take part in the playground battles. It's possible that everyone was a little bit scared of me, of what I could do if I ever got really mad and fought back. They were more than happy to tease me, and tease me they did, but only up to a certain point.
Years later, while I was working on the Census, I ran into one of the guys who'd teased me that day. He invited me into his apartment and offered me a cold drink and we sat down and chatted and reminisced about the old days. He was living with one of his oldest friends and the two of them worked shift-work at the local Mill. They hadn't seen any of the old gang for 10 years or more. Come to think of it, at that time, neither had I.
I was born and raised in a small country town in rural Victoria, Australia. We were just like the kids in most small country towns here in the U.S., most of us wanted to graduate High School and get into college so we could get the hell out of town and never have to go back except to visit our parents. We've moved on, created a new life for ourselves, made new friends. And only occasionally do we ever think back on the people we grew up with, and wonder where they are and what they're doing now. But usually we don't waste too much time on those thoughts, and in some cases we conclude that look back at our childhood days with the simple thought, "Fuck 'em!"
Yeah, there's a handful of people that I still (sort of) keep in touch with from decades gone by, and there's probably a few others that I'd consider sending a Friend request if I found them, but when I think back on my school days, and think of my classmates of yesteryear, most of them can pretty much go fuck themselves.
It occurs to me that I'm letting my son down, perhaps, by not being the father to him that my father was to me. Then again, my son is growing up in a far different world than that in which I grew up.
I don't recall when or how it started but my father taught me how to fight from a very early age. We'd wrestle on the living room floor and I'd try my hardest to beat him. Picture a 6 y/old using all his strength against a grown man. I learned how to slip holds, apply arm bars and hammer locks, how to endure pain (& lack of oxygen) while working out an escape plan. That was one of the lessons my father taught me.
Later when I went to school I joined the kids on the playground in the mock battles that kids in schools in most countries around the world probably hold. Picture an 8 y/old well versed in wrestling, and used to using every last ounce of his strength in an effort to overcome a much larger, far stronger opponent, suddenly taking on kids his own size. In my naivety I had no idea that I was one of the toughest kids in school. If my school had had a wrestling team, I'd have probably kicked arse.
I had a blast wrestling with all of the other boys, but apparently they didn't have as much fun wrestling with me. I was devastated the day one of my friends stopped me from joining one of our battles, telling me I was too rough, that the other kids didn't want me to take part. Thinking back, I'm surprised I never seriously hurt anyone. I never actually became The Toughest Kid in School because while I love wrestling, I hate fighting. I'd talk my way out of most fights if I could, and if I couldn't, rather than fight back I'd just try to stop my opponent from hurting me.
I recall during one Physical Education (Gym) class we were playing a game of baseball. I was one of the basemen. One of the more athletic guys (who was considered one of the toughest kids in school) made a good hit and rounded the bases, stopping at mine. He then tried to be intimidating and shove me off the base. I resisted so he threw a mock punch at my face. I caught his fist and twisting it, applied a standing Arm Bar, then used that leverage to drive him face first (literally) into the ground. Then I let go.
He jumped up and called out to the P.E. Teacher, "Did you see that?"
The P.E. Teacher had seen it, as did probably everyone present, because he was umpiring the game and so watching the action very closely. So not only had our Teacher seen me drive this guy into the ground, he'd seen him shove me first, then throw a punch at my face. I forget exactly what he said but he clearly felt my schoolmate got exactly what he deserved.
One time I was given Out in a game of Cricket when I accidentally played the ball back onto my own wicket. Given the budget of our public school we just used one-piece, solid metal wickets with the bails welded on top, instead of the 5-piece wooden wickets used in most games. After I struck it, the ball slowly rolled backwards along the ground and tapped the metal wickets behind me. The guy playing Keeper appealed and our Teacher declared me Out. I was a bit ticked at this, and let out an incredulous yell "What?!" because I didn't believe the ball had struck the wickets hard enough to dislodge the bails. Yes, they were one-piece metal wickets, so the bails couldn't be dislodged, but my opinion is that had the wickets been made of wood, the bails would have remained atop the wickets.
My classmates were quite amused by my yelped "What?!" and most likely mistook it for confusion on my part, thus implying ignorance of the rules of Cricket. School kids love to make fun of kids who aren't as smart as them, so I was the brunt of much teasing in the locker room after the game. I sat there in raging silence, getting madder and madder as my schoolmates kept up their incessant teasing, and eventually I felt my top lip begin to quiver and curl up in an unmistakable snarl. I tried to stop it but with my schoolmates relentless teasing that was impossible.
When my schoolmates saw my lip begin quivering it then became the focus of the teasing, until they realized it was not the quivering lip of someone almost in tears but the snarling lip of someone trying very, very hard not to kill someone. And so they stopped teasing me, all but the one kid who'd been the Keeper, so everyone literally piled onto him to make him shut up. Which is kind of funny, now that I think about it. They were having lots of fun teasing me, but when they realized how far they'd gone, and that I was desperately trying to hold back the green machine they quickly shut up, and were equally quick to shut down the one guy who didn't want to stop.
They had no qualms with teasing me to the point of what they thought were tears, but when it became obvious that I was actually getting really pissed off, they stopped. Some of who were considered the toughest kids in school were willing to tease me up until it looked like I was going to fight back, and then they stopped. Looking back on this, I think I probably had a reputation as someone who wouldn't fight back (in fact I lost the fights I did get into because I wouldn't fight back), but I think everyone also remembered that I was the one who'd been asked not to take part in the playground battles. It's possible that everyone was a little bit scared of me, of what I could do if I ever got really mad and fought back. They were more than happy to tease me, and tease me they did, but only up to a certain point.
Years later, while I was working on the Census, I ran into one of the guys who'd teased me that day. He invited me into his apartment and offered me a cold drink and we sat down and chatted and reminisced about the old days. He was living with one of his oldest friends and the two of them worked shift-work at the local Mill. They hadn't seen any of the old gang for 10 years or more. Come to think of it, at that time, neither had I.
I was born and raised in a small country town in rural Victoria, Australia. We were just like the kids in most small country towns here in the U.S., most of us wanted to graduate High School and get into college so we could get the hell out of town and never have to go back except to visit our parents. We've moved on, created a new life for ourselves, made new friends. And only occasionally do we ever think back on the people we grew up with, and wonder where they are and what they're doing now. But usually we don't waste too much time on those thoughts, and in some cases we conclude that look back at our childhood days with the simple thought, "Fuck 'em!"
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Hunters rejoice (too soon?)
The Hunter community is ecstatic with the WoW Forum posting by a Blue that many are interpreting to mean WoW:Wrath will increase the Stable slot size, allowing Hunters to have more than just a couple of Pets.
The Forum Thread can be viewed here, look for Ghostcrawler's post. It looks like this:
Exactly what is Ghostcrawler saying there? Earlier in that thread he posted a single-word reply, saying "Okay", which had everyone tripping all over themselves.
Excuse me, but "okay" does not necessarily mean the same as "Yes, we'll do this".
"Okay" means "I hear what you're saying." It means "I understand."
GC then posts, "There are 2 additional slots in the stable."
His reply contains another paragraph but it's irrelevant and deals with a change to the summoning of Pets.
"There are 2 additional slots in the stable."
For some reason, everyone who read that interpreted it to mean, "We're adding 2 slots to the stable."
I'm a little more pessimistic (sometimes) and I read it as it's written, "There are 2 additional slots in the stable." And there are. You go to the Stablemaster and check out your Stable, and there's 2 slots. So you can have your current Pet, and you can keep 2 more in the additional Pet slots in the stable.
Maybe I'm a little jaded after playing for three years, but personally I think if Blizzard were going to increase the number of Stable Slots they'd have done it a long time ago.
Why include something like that in the expansion? Because it will give Hunters a reason to buy it? I doubt it. Most Hunters currently playing are going to buy the expansion anyway. There's absolutely no reason for them to code that in just to increase sales by a tiny amount.
There's an old gamer saying that I think is very appropriate in this situation.
"More stable slots? Screenshot, or it didn't happen!"
Ghostcrawler's post on the Forum is inadequate. I'll believe Hunters have more Stable slots when I see that change go live, but I probably won't see it. By that time I suspect I'll be playing Diablo 3 with my son.
*EDIT - A screenshot from BRK has shown Hunters will get 5 Stable Slots in Wrath. Rejoice!
The Forum Thread can be viewed here, look for Ghostcrawler's post. It looks like this:
Exactly what is Ghostcrawler saying there? Earlier in that thread he posted a single-word reply, saying "Okay", which had everyone tripping all over themselves.
Excuse me, but "okay" does not necessarily mean the same as "Yes, we'll do this".
"Okay" means "I hear what you're saying." It means "I understand."
GC then posts, "There are 2 additional slots in the stable."
His reply contains another paragraph but it's irrelevant and deals with a change to the summoning of Pets.
"There are 2 additional slots in the stable."
For some reason, everyone who read that interpreted it to mean, "We're adding 2 slots to the stable."
I'm a little more pessimistic (sometimes) and I read it as it's written, "There are 2 additional slots in the stable." And there are. You go to the Stablemaster and check out your Stable, and there's 2 slots. So you can have your current Pet, and you can keep 2 more in the additional Pet slots in the stable.
Maybe I'm a little jaded after playing for three years, but personally I think if Blizzard were going to increase the number of Stable Slots they'd have done it a long time ago.
Why include something like that in the expansion? Because it will give Hunters a reason to buy it? I doubt it. Most Hunters currently playing are going to buy the expansion anyway. There's absolutely no reason for them to code that in just to increase sales by a tiny amount.
There's an old gamer saying that I think is very appropriate in this situation.
"More stable slots? Screenshot, or it didn't happen!"
Ghostcrawler's post on the Forum is inadequate. I'll believe Hunters have more Stable slots when I see that change go live, but I probably won't see it. By that time I suspect I'll be playing Diablo 3 with my son.
*EDIT - A screenshot from BRK has shown Hunters will get 5 Stable Slots in Wrath. Rejoice!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
That was awesome
The epicenter for this 5.4 Quake was approx. 20 miles from our house, and about 30 miles from my office.
It rocked my building, tossed my wife around (she was outside sweeping), and scared the hell out of my son.
As long as nobody was hurt it's all just good, wholesome fun :)
Who needs the Fair when Mother Nature can offer up rides this awesome?
*edit* The first sign of the quake was a jarring bump with a loud bang. Then the rocking started, and it went on, and on, and on, for a good 20 seconds or so, I think. Time passes differently in times like these. Not being a native I actually enjoy the shaking and the swaying. As I said, who needs the Fair when you've got an angry Gaia.
Like Xinh, I think tornadoes and hurricanes are inherently scarier. With an earthquake you're prepared (or should be) with tinned food & bottled water to last a few days, but you just go about your daily life as you normally do, until the quake hits without warning. Then there's a bit of a shake, you have a chuckle afterwards, and life goes on.
With a hurricane or tornado you get the experts saying it's hurricane season, then the storm builds up. You listen to the news anxiously as you go about your daily business, until the hurricane alert goes out, then you hurry home, batten down the hatches and go down into the bunker you've dug into the cellar and secured with a bank vault strength door. And then the hurricane hits. And even from deep within your bunker you hear the 100+ mph winds HOWL outside and it's a terrifying sound. You hear the storm shutters banging, you hear your house creaking as it's walls are stressed in ways never intended. Even your bank vault door lifts and drops and thumps in its frame. And you sit like that, for several minutes, waiting for it to finally be over.
With an earthquake there is no warning. It hits, it last a few seconds, and it's over. See how easy that was compared to a hurricane?
What's the worst that can happen in an earthquake? Your house or building could fall down, right? Most buildings in California are built to withstand quite decent shakes, or are retrofitted to do the same. Ok, your house could still fall down, and in a hurricane it could get blown into your neighbors yard. Same difference, with one difference. If your house is going to fall down from a quake, unless it's poorly made you're going to have time to get out before it crashes down around your ears. Try running out of your house as a hurricane is picking it up and depositing it in your neighbor's yard and see what happens. Your house might land in your neighbor's yard but Gaia only knows where you're coming down. Maybe the next town over?
Give me a good earthquake any day, and spare me the howling winds of a hurricane.
It rocked my building, tossed my wife around (she was outside sweeping), and scared the hell out of my son.
As long as nobody was hurt it's all just good, wholesome fun :)
Who needs the Fair when Mother Nature can offer up rides this awesome?
*edit* The first sign of the quake was a jarring bump with a loud bang. Then the rocking started, and it went on, and on, and on, for a good 20 seconds or so, I think. Time passes differently in times like these. Not being a native I actually enjoy the shaking and the swaying. As I said, who needs the Fair when you've got an angry Gaia.
Like Xinh, I think tornadoes and hurricanes are inherently scarier. With an earthquake you're prepared (or should be) with tinned food & bottled water to last a few days, but you just go about your daily life as you normally do, until the quake hits without warning. Then there's a bit of a shake, you have a chuckle afterwards, and life goes on.
With a hurricane or tornado you get the experts saying it's hurricane season, then the storm builds up. You listen to the news anxiously as you go about your daily business, until the hurricane alert goes out, then you hurry home, batten down the hatches and go down into the bunker you've dug into the cellar and secured with a bank vault strength door. And then the hurricane hits. And even from deep within your bunker you hear the 100+ mph winds HOWL outside and it's a terrifying sound. You hear the storm shutters banging, you hear your house creaking as it's walls are stressed in ways never intended. Even your bank vault door lifts and drops and thumps in its frame. And you sit like that, for several minutes, waiting for it to finally be over.
With an earthquake there is no warning. It hits, it last a few seconds, and it's over. See how easy that was compared to a hurricane?
What's the worst that can happen in an earthquake? Your house or building could fall down, right? Most buildings in California are built to withstand quite decent shakes, or are retrofitted to do the same. Ok, your house could still fall down, and in a hurricane it could get blown into your neighbors yard. Same difference, with one difference. If your house is going to fall down from a quake, unless it's poorly made you're going to have time to get out before it crashes down around your ears. Try running out of your house as a hurricane is picking it up and depositing it in your neighbor's yard and see what happens. Your house might land in your neighbor's yard but Gaia only knows where you're coming down. Maybe the next town over?
Give me a good earthquake any day, and spare me the howling winds of a hurricane.
Monday, July 28, 2008
OC Fair: Cooler, cheaper, even more fun.
Funnest? What the **** kind of word is that? It's as bad as ****!!!
We've been to the LA County Fair and the OC Fair several times over the past few years, and while it may be treason for us to admit it, Liz and I greatly prefer the OC Fair.
The LA County Fair. Kinder? Simpler? Funner? I don't think so.
Hotter. More expensive. Dustier. Yeah, that's more like it.
We rocked up to the OC Fair a little after noon on Friday, shortly after the gates opened. Liz asked the Attendant for Preferred Parking and he said we didn't need it. So we paid $5 for General Parking and parked right next to the Preferred Parking section, which would have cost us $5 more if we'd insisted on paying for it. Parking at the LA County Fair? $10 for General, and $15 for Preferred.
Admission was $24 for all four of us (+$5 for the Bunny if she'd been 5 y/old). For the LA County Fair it would have cost us $36 just to walk in the gate, and $48 if we'd had to pay for the Bunny, plus $15 for Preferred, which we would have paid for.
OC Fair vs LA Fair = $29 vs $51
Round One to OC Fair (2 parents + 2 kids = $34 vs $63 = Ouch!)
Temperature in Costa Mesa in late July? Mid to high 70s. Pleasantly warm.
Temperature in Pomona in early September? High 80s to low 90s. Hot and sticky.
Round Two to OC Fair
The assortment of rides are the same, as it's the same crew at each Fair, but at $1 per ride (for Friday when we went, I have a clever wife who plans these things) versus the $2 or more at LA County Fair. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Round 3 and a unanimous decision to the Orange County Fair!!!
Now in its last week for 2008.
* * *
Saturday after in-laws picked up the kids we just bummed around the house. Liz thought about rearranging the upstairs to accommodate a fourth PC (the Bunny is frequently kicking me off mine so she can visit Noggin.com) and finally realized what a logistical nightmare it was. Despite the fact that I was going to get a big screen TV out of it (as in 45" big) I made Liz see just how much rearranging would need to happen to accomplish what she had in mind. Finally she settled for clearing off the desk in JE's room then went online to pick out a new PC for him.
I was complimenting Fry's but after visiting their own and Best Buy's websites Liz found a good price on a full system at Best Buy, which included a printer and a 17" wide-sceen LCD. Not just your run of the mill LCD but a wide-screen. Oooh! The sale ended midnight Saturday so Liz bought it online as an in-store pickup item, the plan being for me to pick it up the next morning.
Sunday morning I was browsing Best Buy's website when I saw my video card was on sale. Newegg have them cheaper, but there's shipping to factor in, compared to the No Interest plan (for using BB Credit Card) and the points from their Reward Zone, so it wasn't hard to convince Liz to let me Buy It Now! So when I picked up the boy's new PC I also got my new video card. Then I spent an hour or so getting everything set up in his room, including making sure Vista was working okay. We wanted the boy to be able to just sit down and turn on his PC and start doing his thing.
Liz attempted to install Age of Empires:Asian Dynasty (one of his favorite games) but she kept getting an error that aborted the install procedure, and she was getting a little pissed off with Vista (ok, even more pissed off than usual. She's not a fan of Vista). She went back to her PC to research AoE & Vista Installation Errors and thought she found the problem. Meanwhile I played with Vista for a few minutes and worked out how to turn off the annoying permissions thing that Vista has turned on by default.
"Hi, it's me, Vista. I know you double-clicked the Install icon on the CD that you just inserted, but I wanted to let you know that the program you're trying run is trying to run, and I just had to ask, do you want me to Allow it to run?"
Yes, if you don't turn that Alert off in the User Settings (I can't remember exactly where I found it, but it wasn't hard to find or turn off) Vista will quite literally ask you every single time you try to run a program if you want to allow that program to run.
With Age of Empires being a Microsoft game I called the MS Games helpline, only to find out they're closed on Sundays, then I looked at the box and discovered the problem.
"Dear!" I called out. "This is the Asian Dynasty expansion! Where's the actual Age of Empires game?"
(It's a good thing MS Games is closed on Sundays :P)
We started to install AoE and Liz started to get a little hot under the collar (again) when AoE informed her it wasn't compatible with Vista. Fortunately AoE lets you continue with the Install (as it bloody well should) so I told Liz to click Continue. I didn't care if AoE wouldn't run under Vista, I just needed it on JE's PC so Asian Dynasty would detect it and complete its own install procedure, which it did. And it looks really sweet at 1440x900 on a widesceen.
*Insert Homer Simpson drooling sound here*
Then I spent another half hour trying to get the Wireless Network card set up, to no avail. So the boy's PC is not on the network and doesn't yet have internet access. I gave up on his PC and settled down to installing my new video card and after a couple of teething problems had it up and running and damn! It looks good! Well, that card itself looks good, but I'd forgotten how good WoW could look with the graphics cranked up. And with 80+ FPS running around Org, no less. Very, very nice.
Afterwards we all got together for dinner to celebrate one of Liz's aunty's 80th birthday. By the time the festivities were over it was past 10pm by the time we got home, and very late by the time the kids were in bed.
* * *
After the kids were in bed I got in a couple more hours of WoW. (Yes, I'm running on less than 4 hours of sleep, but that's somewhat normal for me.) WoW looks so much better with the graphics maxed out like the designers intended :)
I've been leveling a Blood Elf Priest lately (I got my Mage to 61 and figured I'd park him and accrue some rested XP) and I've been having a lot of fun with the Priest, even in a Healer capacity. Healing is usually a very stressful "ZOMG! We wiped! Stupid Priest! L2Healz!" experience but I've got a bit more experience under my belt now than when I last played a Priest. I've also written a couple of Macros to help me out and found one or two tricks that make Healing (at least at a lower level) somewhat easier.
Earlier Sunday I ran Ragefire Chasm with a Rogue and a Warrior. The Rogue was 15, I was 22, and the Warrior was 29. This was actually a good break back into Healing because it reduced the number of Health Bars I needed to watch to three (inc. my own). We cleared almost the entire Instance, and had just one Boss to kill (with a few Mobs between him and us) when the Warrior said "Got to go" and began Hearthing.
I watched incredulous and sure enough, he finished the Hearth and bailed on us. I looked at the Mobs between us and Bazza, the final boss. At most we had a three pull. The Rogue had Sap, I figured we had a decent chance of doing this. So did the Rogue, so we did. It helped that even though the Mobs were Elites, they were 6 levels lower than me. PW:Shield helped, too, as well the wicked Gravestone Scepter Wand for mucho DPS. I ended up Tanking (& Healing :) because I did so much more initial damage than the Rogue that it was impossible for him to pull Aggro off me, or hold it if he had it. We took down Bazza then parted ways.
Later in a cave in Ashenvale I hooked up with a Warlock for an Escort Quest. Right at the end of the quest we got ambushed by several Furbolg, and amazingly we pulled through. I was OOM, down to double-digit HP, and had to quaff a potion just to stay alive, but stay alive we did. Those are the best times, where you're challenged far beyond your normal safe zone, but you still pull through. Those are the moments that really make this game fun.
If I keep playing a Healer I need to steel myself though, it's going to get even tougher until I hit 70...unless I solo all the way. But apparently End-Game Healing is actually easy. We'll see :)
We've been to the LA County Fair and the OC Fair several times over the past few years, and while it may be treason for us to admit it, Liz and I greatly prefer the OC Fair.
The LA County Fair. Kinder? Simpler? Funner? I don't think so.
Hotter. More expensive. Dustier. Yeah, that's more like it.
We rocked up to the OC Fair a little after noon on Friday, shortly after the gates opened. Liz asked the Attendant for Preferred Parking and he said we didn't need it. So we paid $5 for General Parking and parked right next to the Preferred Parking section, which would have cost us $5 more if we'd insisted on paying for it. Parking at the LA County Fair? $10 for General, and $15 for Preferred.
Admission was $24 for all four of us (+$5 for the Bunny if she'd been 5 y/old). For the LA County Fair it would have cost us $36 just to walk in the gate, and $48 if we'd had to pay for the Bunny, plus $15 for Preferred, which we would have paid for.
OC Fair vs LA Fair = $29 vs $51
Round One to OC Fair (2 parents + 2 kids = $34 vs $63 = Ouch!)
Temperature in Costa Mesa in late July? Mid to high 70s. Pleasantly warm.
Temperature in Pomona in early September? High 80s to low 90s. Hot and sticky.
Round Two to OC Fair
The assortment of rides are the same, as it's the same crew at each Fair, but at $1 per ride (for Friday when we went, I have a clever wife who plans these things) versus the $2 or more at LA County Fair. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Round 3 and a unanimous decision to the Orange County Fair!!!
Now in its last week for 2008.
* * *
Saturday after in-laws picked up the kids we just bummed around the house. Liz thought about rearranging the upstairs to accommodate a fourth PC (the Bunny is frequently kicking me off mine so she can visit Noggin.com) and finally realized what a logistical nightmare it was. Despite the fact that I was going to get a big screen TV out of it (as in 45" big) I made Liz see just how much rearranging would need to happen to accomplish what she had in mind. Finally she settled for clearing off the desk in JE's room then went online to pick out a new PC for him.
I was complimenting Fry's but after visiting their own and Best Buy's websites Liz found a good price on a full system at Best Buy, which included a printer and a 17" wide-sceen LCD. Not just your run of the mill LCD but a wide-screen. Oooh! The sale ended midnight Saturday so Liz bought it online as an in-store pickup item, the plan being for me to pick it up the next morning.
Sunday morning I was browsing Best Buy's website when I saw my video card was on sale. Newegg have them cheaper, but there's shipping to factor in, compared to the No Interest plan (for using BB Credit Card) and the points from their Reward Zone, so it wasn't hard to convince Liz to let me Buy It Now! So when I picked up the boy's new PC I also got my new video card. Then I spent an hour or so getting everything set up in his room, including making sure Vista was working okay. We wanted the boy to be able to just sit down and turn on his PC and start doing his thing.
Liz attempted to install Age of Empires:Asian Dynasty (one of his favorite games) but she kept getting an error that aborted the install procedure, and she was getting a little pissed off with Vista (ok, even more pissed off than usual. She's not a fan of Vista). She went back to her PC to research AoE & Vista Installation Errors and thought she found the problem. Meanwhile I played with Vista for a few minutes and worked out how to turn off the annoying permissions thing that Vista has turned on by default.
"Hi, it's me, Vista. I know you double-clicked the Install icon on the CD that you just inserted, but I wanted to let you know that the program you're trying run is trying to run, and I just had to ask, do you want me to Allow it to run?"
Yes, if you don't turn that Alert off in the User Settings (I can't remember exactly where I found it, but it wasn't hard to find or turn off) Vista will quite literally ask you every single time you try to run a program if you want to allow that program to run.
With Age of Empires being a Microsoft game I called the MS Games helpline, only to find out they're closed on Sundays, then I looked at the box and discovered the problem.
"Dear!" I called out. "This is the Asian Dynasty expansion! Where's the actual Age of Empires game?"
(It's a good thing MS Games is closed on Sundays :P)
We started to install AoE and Liz started to get a little hot under the collar (again) when AoE informed her it wasn't compatible with Vista. Fortunately AoE lets you continue with the Install (as it bloody well should) so I told Liz to click Continue. I didn't care if AoE wouldn't run under Vista, I just needed it on JE's PC so Asian Dynasty would detect it and complete its own install procedure, which it did. And it looks really sweet at 1440x900 on a widesceen.
*Insert Homer Simpson drooling sound here*
Then I spent another half hour trying to get the Wireless Network card set up, to no avail. So the boy's PC is not on the network and doesn't yet have internet access. I gave up on his PC and settled down to installing my new video card and after a couple of teething problems had it up and running and damn! It looks good! Well, that card itself looks good, but I'd forgotten how good WoW could look with the graphics cranked up. And with 80+ FPS running around Org, no less. Very, very nice.
Afterwards we all got together for dinner to celebrate one of Liz's aunty's 80th birthday. By the time the festivities were over it was past 10pm by the time we got home, and very late by the time the kids were in bed.
* * *
After the kids were in bed I got in a couple more hours of WoW. (Yes, I'm running on less than 4 hours of sleep, but that's somewhat normal for me.) WoW looks so much better with the graphics maxed out like the designers intended :)
I've been leveling a Blood Elf Priest lately (I got my Mage to 61 and figured I'd park him and accrue some rested XP) and I've been having a lot of fun with the Priest, even in a Healer capacity. Healing is usually a very stressful "ZOMG! We wiped! Stupid Priest! L2Healz!" experience but I've got a bit more experience under my belt now than when I last played a Priest. I've also written a couple of Macros to help me out and found one or two tricks that make Healing (at least at a lower level) somewhat easier.
Earlier Sunday I ran Ragefire Chasm with a Rogue and a Warrior. The Rogue was 15, I was 22, and the Warrior was 29. This was actually a good break back into Healing because it reduced the number of Health Bars I needed to watch to three (inc. my own). We cleared almost the entire Instance, and had just one Boss to kill (with a few Mobs between him and us) when the Warrior said "Got to go" and began Hearthing.
I watched incredulous and sure enough, he finished the Hearth and bailed on us. I looked at the Mobs between us and Bazza, the final boss. At most we had a three pull. The Rogue had Sap, I figured we had a decent chance of doing this. So did the Rogue, so we did. It helped that even though the Mobs were Elites, they were 6 levels lower than me. PW:Shield helped, too, as well the wicked Gravestone Scepter Wand for mucho DPS. I ended up Tanking (& Healing :) because I did so much more initial damage than the Rogue that it was impossible for him to pull Aggro off me, or hold it if he had it. We took down Bazza then parted ways.
Later in a cave in Ashenvale I hooked up with a Warlock for an Escort Quest. Right at the end of the quest we got ambushed by several Furbolg, and amazingly we pulled through. I was OOM, down to double-digit HP, and had to quaff a potion just to stay alive, but stay alive we did. Those are the best times, where you're challenged far beyond your normal safe zone, but you still pull through. Those are the moments that really make this game fun.
If I keep playing a Healer I need to steel myself though, it's going to get even tougher until I hit 70...unless I solo all the way. But apparently End-Game Healing is actually easy. We'll see :)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pet peeves
Oh! Where to start?! Blogs are really for ranting, we all know that ;)
The problem is if we rant too much nobody actually wants to read our Blog, unless we go so over the top and lose our head that it becomes funny to read but only because now you're laughing at the Blogger, not with him/her. And then those Blogs get kind of sad. Then depressing. And then you stop visiting because it becomes painfully obvious the Blogger is a sad, lonely person with an axe to grind but nobody to grind it upon.
Where was I?
Oh yeah! Wolfgang is keen to know what pisses you off, so head on over to his Blog and have a vent. It's very stress relieving :)
The problem is if we rant too much nobody actually wants to read our Blog, unless we go so over the top and lose our head that it becomes funny to read but only because now you're laughing at the Blogger, not with him/her. And then those Blogs get kind of sad. Then depressing. And then you stop visiting because it becomes painfully obvious the Blogger is a sad, lonely person with an axe to grind but nobody to grind it upon.
Where was I?
Oh yeah! Wolfgang is keen to know what pisses you off, so head on over to his Blog and have a vent. It's very stress relieving :)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible"
I've not been here yet, but knowing the genius that is Joss Whedon I'm not sure how he can go wrong.
"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" is only available online for a limited time.
ACT ONE went up on Tuesday July 15th.
ACT TWO goes up today, Thursday July 17th.
ACT THREE (the finale) will go up Saturday July 19th.
All acts will stay up until midnight (PST? GMT -10?) Sunday July 20th.
After that you may only be able to see them if you're prepared to pay for them. But for now, they're free to view.
I'm not saying Dr. Horrible is the best thing since sliced bread or the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is just a PSA for those who might have otherwise missed it, like Liz and I did with Firefly and Serenity.
"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" is only available online for a limited time.
ACT ONE went up on Tuesday July 15th.
ACT TWO goes up today, Thursday July 17th.
ACT THREE (the finale) will go up Saturday July 19th.
All acts will stay up until midnight (PST? GMT -10?) Sunday July 20th.
After that you may only be able to see them if you're prepared to pay for them. But for now, they're free to view.
I'm not saying Dr. Horrible is the best thing since sliced bread or the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is just a PSA for those who might have otherwise missed it, like Liz and I did with Firefly and Serenity.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Andy Dick
He's a strange lad. I've watched his performances and always thought they were a little off, sometimes it seemed like he wasn't really acting.
Then he was on an episode of Trading Spaces and he was a little zany but not overly so. He was obviously having fun but he wasn't getting carried away like "Andy Dick the Comedian".
Now he's gotten himself arrested and booked on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance (Xanax aka Alprazolam), misdemeanor sexual battery (he allegedly pulled down the front of a 17-year old girl's tanktop) and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
Xanax is a drug commonly prescribed to treat acute anxiety and panic attacks.
Common side-effects of Xanax are:
* decreased inhibitions, no fear of danger (increased risk taking behavior)
* depressed mood (with thoughts of suicide or self harm)
* hallucinations, agitation and hostility
* hyperactivity
* speech problems
* unsteadiness and clumsiness, impaired coordination and balance
I don't know about you, but I think those side effects describe "Andy Dick the Comedian" almost to a tee.
Then he was on an episode of Trading Spaces and he was a little zany but not overly so. He was obviously having fun but he wasn't getting carried away like "Andy Dick the Comedian".
Now he's gotten himself arrested and booked on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance (Xanax aka Alprazolam), misdemeanor sexual battery (he allegedly pulled down the front of a 17-year old girl's tanktop) and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
Xanax is a drug commonly prescribed to treat acute anxiety and panic attacks.
Common side-effects of Xanax are:
* decreased inhibitions, no fear of danger (increased risk taking behavior)
* depressed mood (with thoughts of suicide or self harm)
* hallucinations, agitation and hostility
* hyperactivity
* speech problems
* unsteadiness and clumsiness, impaired coordination and balance
I don't know about you, but I think those side effects describe "Andy Dick the Comedian" almost to a tee.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Difference in lifestyles
Some people have a house in the Hamptons.
We have a Hamster in our house.
The reason for the expression on JE's face is because there's no "lid" on the upside-down exercise ball, so as Tiny the Hamster runs around like the speed demon her breed is famous for, she's running right across JE's palm. He thought it tickled.
We figured this was a good way for Tiny to get to know JE's scent, without him actually having to cup her in his hands. This way the two of them can get to know each other in relative safety, without the risk of having a Hamster loose in our house.
We have a Hamster in our house.
The reason for the expression on JE's face is because there's no "lid" on the upside-down exercise ball, so as Tiny the Hamster runs around like the speed demon her breed is famous for, she's running right across JE's palm. He thought it tickled.
We figured this was a good way for Tiny to get to know JE's scent, without him actually having to cup her in his hands. This way the two of them can get to know each other in relative safety, without the risk of having a Hamster loose in our house.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
A new way of questing
The current questing system in most MMOs goes a little like this:
You walk into town and look around and there's usually a visual clue or a sign, perhaps a golden exclamation mark over certain NPC's heads, which says, "Talk to me! I've got a quest!"
So you talk to these specially marked people, click through the page of dialog, then note the objective. "Kill 10 Rats. Ok. Got it." Then you hit Accept and off you go to kill your 10 Rats.
While this system can be very helpful in reducing your downtime, it's not very immersive.
I'd actually like to see a game where not one person has a sign over their head. I want to mouse over everyone and see a Dialog balloon for every, single NPC. I want to be able to talk to every single person in town, if I choose, and they'll all have something to say to me. Sure, not all of them will have a quest, that's asking a bit too much. Some of them might even just say, "Hi, Cap'n. How's it going? Sorry I can't stop to talk. Got to get these cows milked."
But other NPCs might lead into more detailed dialog, as Gordo mentions on his Blog. And these conversations could allude to a potential quest, or even have the quest giver flat out say he needs your help.
Instead of a "Quest Log", I'd like to see a Notes Log, or Journal, where every conversation you have with someone of note would be summarized and recorded. A farmer milking cows is not important to warrant a Note, but a drunk whose son was killed by Bandits certainly would be, and this may result in a Note in your Journal along these lines:
"Spoke to Jenkins in Goldshire. He says his son was recently killed by bandits."
There's no blatantly obvious Objective with this Note. No sign of an "Avenge Jenkins' son by killing 10 Bandits" sort of thing. Just a note that you spoke to Jenkins and discovered his son was killed by bandits.
What you do with the information you get from Jenkins is entirely up to you. But now that you have that Note in your Journal, speaking to Farmer Jed might elicit more than just "Can't stop. Cows to milk."
Farmer Jed now says, "I saw you talkin' to Jenkins earlier. Damn shame about his boy, damn shame. He was a good lad. Blast those bandits, and blast them good fer nothin' Stormwind soldiers. We told 'em them bandits was gettin' bolder. Even told 'em they was camped out by the Fargodeep Mine. They didn't do nothin'. They just hang out at the Northshire Abbey, drinkin' the wine. Bah! Look at the time! These cows won't milk themselves! Excuse me, Cap'n."
Again, no blatant quest objective. No Accept or Decline button. Just an option to say Goodbye and end the conversation.
But if you look in your Journal you'll see the Note for Jenkins has been updated:
"Spoke to Jenkins, in Goldshire, whose son was killed by bandits.
Farmer Jed says the Bandit camp is near the Fargodeep Mine."
Still no objective. Still no "Kill 10 Bandits" quest. But just a little bit of reading comprehension tells you that maybe you should check out the Fargodeep Mine, so you do. If you're not sure where the Fargodeep Mine is, now that Jed's mentioned it, if you talked to him again or to one of the other townsfolk you'll have the option to ask about the Mine and get directions.
So you make your way to the Mine and there are the Bandits and they're naturally not too happy to see you. Several of them attack you but you successfully defend yourself and dispatch all but one of them. As the last Bandit's health gets to 10% (just as an example, it could be when the second-to-last Bandit is killed) your Auto-Attack turns off and the Bandit becomes immune to your attacks. He also stops attacking you (phew!) and instead of an "Attack" icon when you mouse over him you get a Dialog box.
A Dialog box?
So you click and Talk to the Bandit.
"I'm sorry," he says. "Please don't kill me!"
Had you been out here just grinding on the Bandits and not spoken to Jenkins, this wouldn't have happened, instead the Bandits would have all fought to the death. But you've got a Note in your Journal that you spoke to Jenkins, so this scene plays out instead. If you were grouped with someone doing this quest, and you'd spoken to Jenkins but they had not, this scene would have still played out.
"Please don't kill me!" says the Bandit, and the Dialog box provides you with two choices: Interrogate the Bandit, or Finish him!
Clicking "Finish him" puts you back into Combat where the Bandit is quickly dispatched. Searching his body you find An Interesting Dagger, which if you examine will discover it has the letter J carved into the hilt. Checking your Journal you see the reference to Jenkins and the Bandits has again been updated. Now it states that you encountered and slew several Bandits at the Fargodeep Mine, and you found an interesting dagger with a J on the hilt. If you return to old man Jenkins and talk to him you'll have the option to show him the Interesting Dagger. Doing so will "complete" the quest you didn't realize you were on, rewarding you with some XP and the Dagger, which Jenkins returns to you. Spoils of war and all that.
"Now if you'll excuse me," old man Jenkins says, "I'd like to be left alone. Goodbye."
And your Journal gets updated in a manner which shows that this particular story has been completed.
That's if you go the blood thirsty "Show No Mercy!" route.
Clicking "Interrogate the Bandit", however, opens up more dialog (which I can't be bothered creating) but you basically reveal that you're there because of Jenkins and his dead son. The Bandit confesses that he killed Jenkins' son and says if you spare him, he'll turn himself in. Now you have the choice of killing him, or letting him go. Killing him results in the above situation occurring with you finding the Interesting Dagger, blah blah blah. Sparing his life will result in the Bandit running off towards Town. The next time you're in Town the Stormwind Guard stationed there will tell you that Jenkins' son's killer has turned himself in. He'll offer you a reward, which in the interest of fairness will be a monetary amount equivalent to the vendor value of The Interesting Dagger that you didn't get because you didn't kill the Bandit. This will complete the Interrogation side of the quest you didn't know you were on, or maybe you did ;)
Whenever possible, this is how I'd like quests to be done. No looking around for golden exclamation marks. Just talk to everyone. And if a quest appears vague or lacks information, talk to other people. Some NPCs will have quests, of sorts, and some NPCs will offer additional information to help you complete those quests.
If you're a Skinner or Miner (for example), talking to an Armorer or Weaponsmith might result in a response like "Sorry, Cap'n. I'm a little flustered right now. I've got a big order from the Guard and I'm running low on supplies."
Looking in your Journal you see a note stating the local Armorer (or Weaponsmith) is running low on supplies, and perhaps you can be of assistance.
If you hit the forest now and kill some critters and skin them, or go Mining for Ore, your Journal will get updated to reflect this.
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I've got some animal skins he could use, but I think he'll need more."
So you gather more mats and your Journal updates itself, until it reads:
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I think I've got enough animal skins to help him out."
When you return to him you get the same message, "Big order, low on supplies." but now there's an option to offer him the Skins, and doing so naturally completes the quest.
Sure, some people would still just click through every NPC's Dialog then look in their Journal to see what's there, what needs to be done, etc, but with this system the objectives will not always be clearly spelled out for you. It requires reading comprehension.
A quest system like this would help to promote immersion within your gaming world, and really make you feel a part of what's going on. Unfortunately it may not be that popular, because most of today's Instant Gratification Gamers just want to know what to kill, and how many.
Rats? Okay. 10 of them? Consider it done.
Really. How much fun is that?
You walk into town and look around and there's usually a visual clue or a sign, perhaps a golden exclamation mark over certain NPC's heads, which says, "Talk to me! I've got a quest!"
So you talk to these specially marked people, click through the page of dialog, then note the objective. "Kill 10 Rats. Ok. Got it." Then you hit Accept and off you go to kill your 10 Rats.
While this system can be very helpful in reducing your downtime, it's not very immersive.
I'd actually like to see a game where not one person has a sign over their head. I want to mouse over everyone and see a Dialog balloon for every, single NPC. I want to be able to talk to every single person in town, if I choose, and they'll all have something to say to me. Sure, not all of them will have a quest, that's asking a bit too much. Some of them might even just say, "Hi, Cap'n. How's it going? Sorry I can't stop to talk. Got to get these cows milked."
But other NPCs might lead into more detailed dialog, as Gordo mentions on his Blog. And these conversations could allude to a potential quest, or even have the quest giver flat out say he needs your help.
Instead of a "Quest Log", I'd like to see a Notes Log, or Journal, where every conversation you have with someone of note would be summarized and recorded. A farmer milking cows is not important to warrant a Note, but a drunk whose son was killed by Bandits certainly would be, and this may result in a Note in your Journal along these lines:
"Spoke to Jenkins in Goldshire. He says his son was recently killed by bandits."
There's no blatantly obvious Objective with this Note. No sign of an "Avenge Jenkins' son by killing 10 Bandits" sort of thing. Just a note that you spoke to Jenkins and discovered his son was killed by bandits.
What you do with the information you get from Jenkins is entirely up to you. But now that you have that Note in your Journal, speaking to Farmer Jed might elicit more than just "Can't stop. Cows to milk."
Farmer Jed now says, "I saw you talkin' to Jenkins earlier. Damn shame about his boy, damn shame. He was a good lad. Blast those bandits, and blast them good fer nothin' Stormwind soldiers. We told 'em them bandits was gettin' bolder. Even told 'em they was camped out by the Fargodeep Mine. They didn't do nothin'. They just hang out at the Northshire Abbey, drinkin' the wine. Bah! Look at the time! These cows won't milk themselves! Excuse me, Cap'n."
Again, no blatant quest objective. No Accept or Decline button. Just an option to say Goodbye and end the conversation.
But if you look in your Journal you'll see the Note for Jenkins has been updated:
"Spoke to Jenkins, in Goldshire, whose son was killed by bandits.
Farmer Jed says the Bandit camp is near the Fargodeep Mine."
Still no objective. Still no "Kill 10 Bandits" quest. But just a little bit of reading comprehension tells you that maybe you should check out the Fargodeep Mine, so you do. If you're not sure where the Fargodeep Mine is, now that Jed's mentioned it, if you talked to him again or to one of the other townsfolk you'll have the option to ask about the Mine and get directions.
So you make your way to the Mine and there are the Bandits and they're naturally not too happy to see you. Several of them attack you but you successfully defend yourself and dispatch all but one of them. As the last Bandit's health gets to 10% (just as an example, it could be when the second-to-last Bandit is killed) your Auto-Attack turns off and the Bandit becomes immune to your attacks. He also stops attacking you (phew!) and instead of an "Attack" icon when you mouse over him you get a Dialog box.
A Dialog box?
So you click and Talk to the Bandit.
"I'm sorry," he says. "Please don't kill me!"
Had you been out here just grinding on the Bandits and not spoken to Jenkins, this wouldn't have happened, instead the Bandits would have all fought to the death. But you've got a Note in your Journal that you spoke to Jenkins, so this scene plays out instead. If you were grouped with someone doing this quest, and you'd spoken to Jenkins but they had not, this scene would have still played out.
"Please don't kill me!" says the Bandit, and the Dialog box provides you with two choices: Interrogate the Bandit, or Finish him!
Clicking "Finish him" puts you back into Combat where the Bandit is quickly dispatched. Searching his body you find An Interesting Dagger, which if you examine will discover it has the letter J carved into the hilt. Checking your Journal you see the reference to Jenkins and the Bandits has again been updated. Now it states that you encountered and slew several Bandits at the Fargodeep Mine, and you found an interesting dagger with a J on the hilt. If you return to old man Jenkins and talk to him you'll have the option to show him the Interesting Dagger. Doing so will "complete" the quest you didn't realize you were on, rewarding you with some XP and the Dagger, which Jenkins returns to you. Spoils of war and all that.
"Now if you'll excuse me," old man Jenkins says, "I'd like to be left alone. Goodbye."
And your Journal gets updated in a manner which shows that this particular story has been completed.
That's if you go the blood thirsty "Show No Mercy!" route.
Clicking "Interrogate the Bandit", however, opens up more dialog (which I can't be bothered creating) but you basically reveal that you're there because of Jenkins and his dead son. The Bandit confesses that he killed Jenkins' son and says if you spare him, he'll turn himself in. Now you have the choice of killing him, or letting him go. Killing him results in the above situation occurring with you finding the Interesting Dagger, blah blah blah. Sparing his life will result in the Bandit running off towards Town. The next time you're in Town the Stormwind Guard stationed there will tell you that Jenkins' son's killer has turned himself in. He'll offer you a reward, which in the interest of fairness will be a monetary amount equivalent to the vendor value of The Interesting Dagger that you didn't get because you didn't kill the Bandit. This will complete the Interrogation side of the quest you didn't know you were on, or maybe you did ;)
Whenever possible, this is how I'd like quests to be done. No looking around for golden exclamation marks. Just talk to everyone. And if a quest appears vague or lacks information, talk to other people. Some NPCs will have quests, of sorts, and some NPCs will offer additional information to help you complete those quests.
If you're a Skinner or Miner (for example), talking to an Armorer or Weaponsmith might result in a response like "Sorry, Cap'n. I'm a little flustered right now. I've got a big order from the Guard and I'm running low on supplies."
Looking in your Journal you see a note stating the local Armorer (or Weaponsmith) is running low on supplies, and perhaps you can be of assistance.
If you hit the forest now and kill some critters and skin them, or go Mining for Ore, your Journal will get updated to reflect this.
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I've got some animal skins he could use, but I think he'll need more."
So you gather more mats and your Journal updates itself, until it reads:
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I think I've got enough animal skins to help him out."
When you return to him you get the same message, "Big order, low on supplies." but now there's an option to offer him the Skins, and doing so naturally completes the quest.
Sure, some people would still just click through every NPC's Dialog then look in their Journal to see what's there, what needs to be done, etc, but with this system the objectives will not always be clearly spelled out for you. It requires reading comprehension.
A quest system like this would help to promote immersion within your gaming world, and really make you feel a part of what's going on. Unfortunately it may not be that popular, because most of today's Instant Gratification Gamers just want to know what to kill, and how many.
Rats? Okay. 10 of them? Consider it done.
Really. How much fun is that?
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Amazing feats
I've done what I consider some pretty amazing stuff in my life.
While chasing down an errant basketball I once hurdled a 4-foot high fence. This is 6" higher than an Olympic Hurdle. The rules of our playground game were who ever got to an out-of-bounds ball first kept it for the throw in. Two other kids beat me to the fence but they stopped and put their hands on top to vault over. Realizing that would slow me down I just leaped. I have no idea how I managed to clear it, but I did, and I got to the ball first.
While walking through a park one spring day I heard the beating of wings and felt movement in the air behind my head. Without even thinking about it I dropped to my knees and the furious magpie passed through the space just recently occupied by my head.
Both of these feats are nothing compared to an event that occurred during one of my karate classes. As a warm-up we used to play a very physical version of basketball, but we weren't allowed to use our hands, not to tackle nor to handle the ball, any other body part was fair game though, which is how I scored one of the few goals ever scored, with a head butt. That impressed everyone in the Dojo and several other people attempted head butt goals but nobody else was ever successful.
That's not the amazing bit though.
During one such game the ball flew so high into the air that it hit the ceiling of the Dojo, which was actually an industrial warehouse leased by our Sensei. I was underneath it at the time and with everyone yelling and Senpai Robbie rushing towards me I quickly headed the ball away to a team mate...but Senpai Robbie kept coming at me, very, very quickly, which confused the hell out of me because I didn't have the ball any more.
I yelled "I don't have the ball!" but Senpai Robbie kept coming.
Then he leaped into the air, straight for me.
I dropped to my knees and ducked my head and with a very graceful leap that can usually only be performed by highly trained ballet dancers or martial artists Senpai Robbie leaped over my head...and caught the fluorescent light that had been knocked loose by the basketball.
He leaped over me and while in mid-air caught a fluorescent light.
Then he landed on the other side of me, still running, and unable to check his momentum in time he literally ran into and up the side of the Dojo wall. Just like they do in the movies he took a couple of steps along the wall before dropping back down onto the floor, all the while holding the fluorescent light in one hand. You don't see them do that in the movies.
I've seen Martial Artists do some amazing things, but it's always something they've practiced many, many times in order to perfect it. I'm not saying what they do is not impressive, it's just it's all rehearsed. Senpai Robbie catching a falling fluorescent light in midair, then running up, across, and down a wall, still holding the fluorescent light; that was amazing.
While chasing down an errant basketball I once hurdled a 4-foot high fence. This is 6" higher than an Olympic Hurdle. The rules of our playground game were who ever got to an out-of-bounds ball first kept it for the throw in. Two other kids beat me to the fence but they stopped and put their hands on top to vault over. Realizing that would slow me down I just leaped. I have no idea how I managed to clear it, but I did, and I got to the ball first.
While walking through a park one spring day I heard the beating of wings and felt movement in the air behind my head. Without even thinking about it I dropped to my knees and the furious magpie passed through the space just recently occupied by my head.
Both of these feats are nothing compared to an event that occurred during one of my karate classes. As a warm-up we used to play a very physical version of basketball, but we weren't allowed to use our hands, not to tackle nor to handle the ball, any other body part was fair game though, which is how I scored one of the few goals ever scored, with a head butt. That impressed everyone in the Dojo and several other people attempted head butt goals but nobody else was ever successful.
That's not the amazing bit though.
During one such game the ball flew so high into the air that it hit the ceiling of the Dojo, which was actually an industrial warehouse leased by our Sensei. I was underneath it at the time and with everyone yelling and Senpai Robbie rushing towards me I quickly headed the ball away to a team mate...but Senpai Robbie kept coming at me, very, very quickly, which confused the hell out of me because I didn't have the ball any more.
I yelled "I don't have the ball!" but Senpai Robbie kept coming.
Then he leaped into the air, straight for me.
I dropped to my knees and ducked my head and with a very graceful leap that can usually only be performed by highly trained ballet dancers or martial artists Senpai Robbie leaped over my head...and caught the fluorescent light that had been knocked loose by the basketball.
He leaped over me and while in mid-air caught a fluorescent light.
Then he landed on the other side of me, still running, and unable to check his momentum in time he literally ran into and up the side of the Dojo wall. Just like they do in the movies he took a couple of steps along the wall before dropping back down onto the floor, all the while holding the fluorescent light in one hand. You don't see them do that in the movies.
I've seen Martial Artists do some amazing things, but it's always something they've practiced many, many times in order to perfect it. I'm not saying what they do is not impressive, it's just it's all rehearsed. Senpai Robbie catching a falling fluorescent light in midair, then running up, across, and down a wall, still holding the fluorescent light; that was amazing.
The Case of the Silent Cell Phone
Xinh's post about the problems her parents (her father in particular) are having with their new cell phones reminded me of an incident at work last week.
One of the ladies was having a problem not hearing her cell phone ring. Her and another coworker had been calling it all morning but it hadn't rung once, so the coworker brought it to me to figure it out.
I went into the Settings and turned up the ring volume, then my coworker tried calling the Silent Cell Phone from her own cell phone.
It didn't ring.
I went back into the Settings. Yes, Ringer Volume was on loud.
I turned on Vibrate.
My coworker called the Silent Cell Phone again, but it remained silent, and it didn't vibrate.
I asked my coworker if the call went through, or if it just went straight into voicemail.
She informed me that she'd hung up as soon as she saw the Silent Cell Phone wasn't ringing.
I took the piece of paper on which the owner of the Silent Cell Phone had written down her number, and I called it from my work phone.
I put the call on speaker so we sat there listening to the phone on the other end ring...but the Silent Cell Phone remained silent.
Then the ringing on my phone stopped, and a voice came out of the speaker.
A little old lady's voice.
"Hello?"
I grabbed my phone's receiver. "Hi. Is this 555-1234?"
"Yes," said the little old lady.
"It is? Then I must have been given the wrong number. I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you."
I hung up and looked at my coworker.
She looked at me.
Then we both looked at the slip of paper in my hand with the wrong phone number written on it.
All morning my coworkers had been calling the little old lady at 555-1234, then hanging up on her.
We used the Silent Cell Phone to call my desk phone. My Caller ID showed the number to be 555-1243. I called that number. The Silent Cell Phone was no longer silent.
We then proceeded to call my first coworker all sorts of names.
I think Doofus was one of the nicer ones ;)
One of the ladies was having a problem not hearing her cell phone ring. Her and another coworker had been calling it all morning but it hadn't rung once, so the coworker brought it to me to figure it out.
I went into the Settings and turned up the ring volume, then my coworker tried calling the Silent Cell Phone from her own cell phone.
It didn't ring.
I went back into the Settings. Yes, Ringer Volume was on loud.
I turned on Vibrate.
My coworker called the Silent Cell Phone again, but it remained silent, and it didn't vibrate.
I asked my coworker if the call went through, or if it just went straight into voicemail.
She informed me that she'd hung up as soon as she saw the Silent Cell Phone wasn't ringing.
I took the piece of paper on which the owner of the Silent Cell Phone had written down her number, and I called it from my work phone.
I put the call on speaker so we sat there listening to the phone on the other end ring...but the Silent Cell Phone remained silent.
Then the ringing on my phone stopped, and a voice came out of the speaker.
A little old lady's voice.
"Hello?"
I grabbed my phone's receiver. "Hi. Is this 555-1234?"
"Yes," said the little old lady.
"It is? Then I must have been given the wrong number. I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you."
I hung up and looked at my coworker.
She looked at me.
Then we both looked at the slip of paper in my hand with the wrong phone number written on it.
All morning my coworkers had been calling the little old lady at 555-1234, then hanging up on her.
We used the Silent Cell Phone to call my desk phone. My Caller ID showed the number to be 555-1243. I called that number. The Silent Cell Phone was no longer silent.
We then proceeded to call my first coworker all sorts of names.
I think Doofus was one of the nicer ones ;)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Do you know how fast you were going?
Fast enough that it took you 10 years to catch me.
No, I never said that. I'm a smart arse, but I'm not stupid...ok, that's debatable, too ;)
I've been in the U.S. for over 10 years, and in that entire time the only ticket I got was one, single parking ticket...until today :P
The cop cited me under CVC 22350 which I think was a big mistake on his behalf. I've spent most of the day reading up on how to fight my ticket, and from what I've found a 22350 is one of the easier tickets to beat.
I thought I'd heard that the posted speed limit is not a hard & fast limit, and from what I can tell, that's absolutely correct. (*note - This is purely my opinion. I am not a Lawyer and this does not constitute professional legal advice) So just because the officer nabbed you for allegedly doing 51mph in a 35mph zone does not necessarily mean you are guilty of violating CVC 22350. Hell yeah, I'm gonna fight this :D
Of course I may lose...but I'm still gonna fight it!
No, I never said that. I'm a smart arse, but I'm not stupid...ok, that's debatable, too ;)
I've been in the U.S. for over 10 years, and in that entire time the only ticket I got was one, single parking ticket...until today :P
The cop cited me under CVC 22350 which I think was a big mistake on his behalf. I've spent most of the day reading up on how to fight my ticket, and from what I've found a 22350 is one of the easier tickets to beat.
I thought I'd heard that the posted speed limit is not a hard & fast limit, and from what I can tell, that's absolutely correct. (*note - This is purely my opinion. I am not a Lawyer and this does not constitute professional legal advice) So just because the officer nabbed you for allegedly doing 51mph in a 35mph zone does not necessarily mean you are guilty of violating CVC 22350. Hell yeah, I'm gonna fight this :D
Of course I may lose...but I'm still gonna fight it!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Bartle, WoW, and immersiveness
Richard Bartle (read more on him at Wiki) has drawn a lot of ire lately for comments he made re: the current state of MMOs, specifically one grossly misinterpreted statement that WoW = WHO, or vice versa. I'm not jumping on that bandwagon because so many people already have.
Now either Richard, or someone doing a darn good job of posing as him, is also responding to these threads, and reading what he had to say has opened my eyes a little more to the current state of WoW.
If you recall the screen caps on my earlier post where my video card died, WoW can look amazing if you turn on/up all the graphical options.
But that's just the frosting on the cake. How does it taste?
For a game where I've determined you do little more than a variant of 5 common tasks (Kill 10 Rats; Collect 10 Rat Skulls; Escort someone passed the Rats; Kill the Rat King; or deliver a letter/run an errand) WoW can really suck you in.
As a player, you and I you look around the World of Warcraft and we're blown away by the visuals, by how good the game looks.
As a designer, Richard Bartle can also appreciate the work that went into making the game look as good as it does, but, as a designer, he can also spot the shortcomings.
It's like if we went to a magic show with David Copperfield. I don't mean we went to watch DC perform, I mean we went with him; he sat in the audience with us. Now while we're mesmerized by the on-stage magician's tricks and left wondering how he did what he did, DC is watching and enjoying (or not) the magician's performance for how well he did his job. DC will notice the sleight-of-hand tricks that misdirect the rest of us. He'll see the magician palm the object that to us magically disappeared. If the magician does his job well, DC might even enjoy the show. But if the magician performs poorly, well, I'm not even a professionally trained singer, but I can carry a tune and when someone sings a little off key or misses a note or they do something that's a little off, I can tell, and it interferes with my enjoyment of their performance. So imagine DC watching an alleged professional magician totally balls up his performance. I'm not saying Blizzard screwed up WoW, what I am saying is that they did a fantastic job, but they could have done even better.
When RB and I both did the same thing in-game, that being swim around the entire Eastern Kingdoms continent, we noticed different things. While I was blown away by the coral reefs, the ship wrecks, etc. RB noticed other things, like the absence of fish in some areas. If you swim along a desolate coastline in WoW, such as around the Eastern Kingdoms, in some areas there are absolutely no fish at all. This is because the designers didn't see the need to develop that particular stretch of coastline so they didn't put any fish there, but real fish would have swam there anyway. That they didn't swim there tells RB that every single fish in WoW is placed by hand. Ok, by computer, but their placement is not a random occurrence. The program has spots where fish are meant to be, and if you go outside those areas you won't see any fish because the program was not told to put any there. And RB notices that.
His mention of this has opened my eyes to other, similar, immersion-breaking inconsistencies within WoW.
WoW's local fauna consists of predators and critters. Critters are level 1 passive Mobs such as rats, rabbits, sheep, cows, deer, etc. Predators are your more aggressive Mobs, and are the ones you usually get asked to kill for quests. In WoW, a casual observer will notice a predator leave its path to kill a small critter, such as a rabbit, then return to its path. RB and other designers see this, and see something more. What reason does the predator have to kill the critter? It doesn't eat the critter and it shouldn't feel threatened by it, so why attack it and kill it? The reason is WoW's designers put that particular sequence in there in order to increase the feeling of playing in a real world. But they left out the consumption of the critter and there are very few non-human predators on this planet which kill for reasons other than food.
There are many, similar inconsistencies to this in other areas, such as the Horde's Warsong Lumber Camp in Ashenvale. When you enter the camp you will see armed guards protecting the workers, but from what? It's surely not the Wolves and Spiders wandering around, because in some cases a wolf will wander right past a guard or a worker, and everyone just continues on with their business. Then you enter the scene. The guards and workers ignore you, for as a member of the Horde you're just like them, but as you walk through the camp you get attacked by a Wolf, the very same wolf that just brushed up against a worker! This makes absolutely no sense from an immersion point of view. This is supposed to be a wild animal, it was walking right passed a worker that it had no interest in, but it was more than willing to attack you. If it's going to attack you it should attack the workers and guards. You could argue that when the Horde moved in the guards beat the wolves into submission, but in that case they should either be tame beasts and not attack a member of the same faction, or they should be wild but timid animals afraid to go near the Lumber Mill and its aggressive guards. And why when the Wolf attacks you do the guards not rush to your defense?
In Stranglethorn Vale a Troll Mob can safely walk alongside the crocolisk-filled river, but when you try the same thing the crocs attack. This is the exact same situation as in the Warsong Lumber Mill. Two completely unrelated Mobs ignoring each other but either, or both, is more than willing to attack the player. If the Crocolisk is feeling threatened by the player, or is supposed to be protecting its territory, it should likewise feel threatened by the Troll Mob, but it does not. If it's supposed to be hungry (the primary reason predators attack) then why didn't it attack the Troll Mob, who at a lower level should appear much easier prey to the Croc than yourself.
This is certainly not game breaking for me, in fact for me these things now add even more to the game. Now I'm paying more attention and trying to spot these inconsistencies. Sort of like Easter Eggs in your DVDs, or goofs or glitches, like seeing an actor take a big swig from his beer just before the shot changes, and when the camera returns to him his beer glass is still full. We all find our fun somewhere.
Now either Richard, or someone doing a darn good job of posing as him, is also responding to these threads, and reading what he had to say has opened my eyes a little more to the current state of WoW.
If you recall the screen caps on my earlier post where my video card died, WoW can look amazing if you turn on/up all the graphical options.
But that's just the frosting on the cake. How does it taste?
For a game where I've determined you do little more than a variant of 5 common tasks (Kill 10 Rats; Collect 10 Rat Skulls; Escort someone passed the Rats; Kill the Rat King; or deliver a letter/run an errand) WoW can really suck you in.
As a player, you and I you look around the World of Warcraft and we're blown away by the visuals, by how good the game looks.
As a designer, Richard Bartle can also appreciate the work that went into making the game look as good as it does, but, as a designer, he can also spot the shortcomings.
It's like if we went to a magic show with David Copperfield. I don't mean we went to watch DC perform, I mean we went with him; he sat in the audience with us. Now while we're mesmerized by the on-stage magician's tricks and left wondering how he did what he did, DC is watching and enjoying (or not) the magician's performance for how well he did his job. DC will notice the sleight-of-hand tricks that misdirect the rest of us. He'll see the magician palm the object that to us magically disappeared. If the magician does his job well, DC might even enjoy the show. But if the magician performs poorly, well, I'm not even a professionally trained singer, but I can carry a tune and when someone sings a little off key or misses a note or they do something that's a little off, I can tell, and it interferes with my enjoyment of their performance. So imagine DC watching an alleged professional magician totally balls up his performance. I'm not saying Blizzard screwed up WoW, what I am saying is that they did a fantastic job, but they could have done even better.
When RB and I both did the same thing in-game, that being swim around the entire Eastern Kingdoms continent, we noticed different things. While I was blown away by the coral reefs, the ship wrecks, etc. RB noticed other things, like the absence of fish in some areas. If you swim along a desolate coastline in WoW, such as around the Eastern Kingdoms, in some areas there are absolutely no fish at all. This is because the designers didn't see the need to develop that particular stretch of coastline so they didn't put any fish there, but real fish would have swam there anyway. That they didn't swim there tells RB that every single fish in WoW is placed by hand. Ok, by computer, but their placement is not a random occurrence. The program has spots where fish are meant to be, and if you go outside those areas you won't see any fish because the program was not told to put any there. And RB notices that.
His mention of this has opened my eyes to other, similar, immersion-breaking inconsistencies within WoW.
WoW's local fauna consists of predators and critters. Critters are level 1 passive Mobs such as rats, rabbits, sheep, cows, deer, etc. Predators are your more aggressive Mobs, and are the ones you usually get asked to kill for quests. In WoW, a casual observer will notice a predator leave its path to kill a small critter, such as a rabbit, then return to its path. RB and other designers see this, and see something more. What reason does the predator have to kill the critter? It doesn't eat the critter and it shouldn't feel threatened by it, so why attack it and kill it? The reason is WoW's designers put that particular sequence in there in order to increase the feeling of playing in a real world. But they left out the consumption of the critter and there are very few non-human predators on this planet which kill for reasons other than food.
There are many, similar inconsistencies to this in other areas, such as the Horde's Warsong Lumber Camp in Ashenvale. When you enter the camp you will see armed guards protecting the workers, but from what? It's surely not the Wolves and Spiders wandering around, because in some cases a wolf will wander right past a guard or a worker, and everyone just continues on with their business. Then you enter the scene. The guards and workers ignore you, for as a member of the Horde you're just like them, but as you walk through the camp you get attacked by a Wolf, the very same wolf that just brushed up against a worker! This makes absolutely no sense from an immersion point of view. This is supposed to be a wild animal, it was walking right passed a worker that it had no interest in, but it was more than willing to attack you. If it's going to attack you it should attack the workers and guards. You could argue that when the Horde moved in the guards beat the wolves into submission, but in that case they should either be tame beasts and not attack a member of the same faction, or they should be wild but timid animals afraid to go near the Lumber Mill and its aggressive guards. And why when the Wolf attacks you do the guards not rush to your defense?
In Stranglethorn Vale a Troll Mob can safely walk alongside the crocolisk-filled river, but when you try the same thing the crocs attack. This is the exact same situation as in the Warsong Lumber Mill. Two completely unrelated Mobs ignoring each other but either, or both, is more than willing to attack the player. If the Crocolisk is feeling threatened by the player, or is supposed to be protecting its territory, it should likewise feel threatened by the Troll Mob, but it does not. If it's supposed to be hungry (the primary reason predators attack) then why didn't it attack the Troll Mob, who at a lower level should appear much easier prey to the Croc than yourself.
This is certainly not game breaking for me, in fact for me these things now add even more to the game. Now I'm paying more attention and trying to spot these inconsistencies. Sort of like Easter Eggs in your DVDs, or goofs or glitches, like seeing an actor take a big swig from his beer just before the shot changes, and when the camera returns to him his beer glass is still full. We all find our fun somewhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
