Hey. How YOU doin' ?

Life has been going on, we've been doing stuff, but as more and more time passed since my last Blog post I felt less & less inclined to write another entry. So why now? Why not just the Blog die? Good answer. Boredom, perhaps :P

The boy and I have been playing a lot of Magic:The Gathering. He's getting pretty good at building & tweaking his decks, and seems to know how to get the best out of each of the cards in his hand at any given time. Our games are no longer a walk in the park for me, and when I'm not careful about how to play my own cards he will take advantage of the situation and my lack of concentration and kick my butt. And I'm happy for him that he's able to do so :)

We've been watching Wil Wheaton's "Tabletop" videos on Youtube, where he has a few guests over and they all play a board game together. It's not as boring as it sounds. Okay, some of the videos are, but some of them are very entertaining to watch, too. Through Tabletop I finally got to see Munchkin in action, which is game I've had my eye on for a long time but never felt it was something the family would want to play. But after watching it played on Tabletop, then having a birthday last month, I decided Munchkin should be my birthday present, and so it was. And when it arrived we played it almost non-stop for several days in a row. We would play back-to-back games, then take a break for an hour or so, then one of us would be "So...rematch?" and everybody said "Sure! Get it ready!" I won't bore you with the details, instead, watch Wil & Co. play the game and you can decide if Munchkin might be something you could get into.


Subsequent edit to the review of Facebook's Walking Dead Game. I will leave the review up, but they made a few changes to the game, as I discovered when I was playing the other night, which IMO are game-breaking.

I had leveled up so I went to do the next Story Mission, and I discovered I didn't have enough Supplies to attempt it. Which was odd because I'd never ran into this problem before. In fact I had almost 250 Supplies, and yet I still needed more in order to do the Story Mission. So I did a couple more regular Missions, obtained some more supplies, then completed the Story Mission.

The next Story Mission popped up and naturally it required me to gain another level before I could attempt it, or I could spend Dead Dollars to unlock it now. Except it was pointless unlocking it now because I had no Supplies...and I needed 260 Supplies to attempt it. For several seconds I stared at that requirement in disbelief. Then I quit the game.

Don't get me wrong. I understand wanting to be compensated for your time in building your game by encouraging your players to pay-to-play, but IMO this change was ridiculously excessive and achieved the exact opposite of what "they" were trying to accomplish.

Instead of persuading me to invest money in the game as I've done in the past with other games, LOTRO, Wizard 101, and DDO, just to name a few, they turned me off the game instead.

Anyway, here's my original review, for what it's worth, given that I no longer consider it worth playing.

* * *


I recently began playing Facebook's The Walking Dead game which, unlike many of FB and Zynga's games, actually plays like a real game. If you ever played X-Com or any of its spin-offs The Walking Dead game is a lot like that. Naturally it's a "lite" version, and naturally, being a FB game, there's the pervasive begging to pay them real money to play what is otherwise a free game. But being a FB game it's not something you'll spend an entire evening playing; it's really just a minor diversion for 30 minutes or so, but it's a fun 30-minute diversion and with the X-Com-like mechanics it's more like a real game than any other FB game I've played (and I've played a lot of them).

You start with your main character who, after a brief tutorial with Sheriff Shane, finds him/herself in the first season's camp, where you'll meet Lori & Carl, and T-Dog, just to name a few of the more familiar characters.

There are other characters in the camp, too, and chatting to them will provide you with a Mission, Intel, or boost your Morale, with Intel & Morale being 'resources' you'll need to attempt the Missions. Before you go on a Mission you select a character (other characters will join your "Main Character"), then select a weapon. Some Missions are Guns Only, some are Melee Only, which is kind of irrelevant because you can change weapons mid-Mission. On a Melee Only Mission you can switch out your Hatchet for the Shotgun, if you feel it necessary to shoot a Walker. Conversely, if you don't want to shoot (Ammo is a limited resource, and gunshots will attract other, nearby Walkers) you can just use your gun as a Melee weapon.

Missions are played in a hybrid real-time, turn-by-turn, grid-based system, where you select an action or a square to move to, and while your character performs that action or runs to that square, any nearby Walkers will just stand there and watch. So you can run right up to a Walker and bash his brains in (out?), if you want to.

But it's not quite turn-based, because while you're deciding what to do, the Walkers will still be moving around the map, with one exception: once a Walker notices you they will take several steps toward you, then stop. They had their turn, they moved their maximum amount of steps, and now it's your turn.

This is where X-Com-lite and strategy come into play.

Each Mission has a goal, "Kill X Walkers", "Find X Supplies", etc., and every action you perform while undertaking that Mission uses an Energy point, and your Character only has a limited amount of Energy.

So...do you run up to that Walker and hit him, even though you need to go the other way to get to the Mission-critical Supplies?

Do you Shoot the Walker from a distance, and risk alerting other nearby Walkers?

Do you "End Turn" and let the Walker move closer, so you don't waste Energy on moving but now run the risk of the Walker getting close enough to Melee you first?

Or do you run the other way, hoping you don't run into another Walker, and hope to find something to hide (Crouch) behind so - hopefully - the Walker loses interest in you?

It's the little things like these which I feel make The Walking Dead game a lot more enjoyable than your typical FB game.

As you progress through the game and complete Missions you Level Up and earn Skills points, which you use to improve your Characters by buffing their stats. Such as Vision, to increase how far you can see. Stamina, so you can take more hits in combat, and Movement, to increase how far you can move "per turn", and so on.

Buffing Movement is a good place to start as it allows you to outrun Walkers, get in and deliver the first strike, or even just move long distances thus maximizing your Movement-to-Energy point ratio.

A few points in Stamina can also go a long way to keeping you alive when you're forced to engage multiple Walkers. And sometimes you will, because the game has an annoying habit at higher levels of turning what appears to be one corpse into two Walkers.

Vision is useful but not terribly necessary. Items like Food, Water, Medical Supplies, etc. are always visible, even when at the other end of the map. The only reason to buff Vision is to increase your short-range distance so you can see any nearby Walkers.

You also have a Striking and a Shooting stat, which you'll need to buff not to make you better at Striking & Shooting, but to allow you to wield higher level weapons. Weapons wear out and need repairing after a few missions, and you cannot attempt a Mission empty-handed, so you'll want a good range of weapons so you're not waiting on repairs.

And with that, comes combat. When you enter into combat a circular targeting reticle appears, and depending on your weapon one of several patterns will begin. Sometimes the reticle will move in a figure 8, other times it will bounce up & down or move from left to right, but it will always be centered over the Walker's head. As it passes over his head it turns red, and it's obvious what you need to do; left-click when it's red and make the Walker dead (more dead?).

Time your click right and you take the Walker out, complete with animation. Time your click perfectly and you get credited with a Perfect Kill and a special animation. For example, a regular kill with the Hatchet has you bury it in the Walker's head, but a Perfect Kill has you first decapitate the Walker then stomp on its head. It's not a ground-breaking combat system, but that you don't just click "Strike" and get an automatic kill makes it more engaging and more interesting than your standard FB "game".

Now if you miss, by clicking too early or too late, it's the Walker's turn and they don't miss. Your character will struggle with the Walker for a second or two before pushing it back, but the green Stamina bar below your character will now no longer be full. And if there were two Walkers they'll both get in a hit. These are the moments when you'll be glad you used several of those early skill points to boost your Stamina.

One last thing on Missions and Leveling. There is a Story that unfolds as you get further into the game and complete more and more Story Missions. In an attempt to persuade you to give them money the Devs slipped in a game mechanic where a Story Mission requires you to be one level higher than your current level before you can attempt it. Oh sure, you could grind non-Story missions, slowly earning XP, until you finally gain enough to go up a level. Or...you could give the Devs your credit card number and unlock that Story Mission now ;)

If you can get over the fact that it's a Facebook game, look past the blatant attempt to wring real money out of you, and don't mind playing it for half an hour or so at a time, you'll find a fun little game that lets you indulge your Zombie-slaying fantasies without drawing weird looks from the neighbors peering over your back fence.

Pullover! No, it's a cardigan.

At 4:30am it's rare for me to see anyone else on the road, and so I almost always do a "California Roll" through the first Stop Sign as I head off to work. At the bottom of that street is a set of traffic lights where I make a right turn, and although the law requires me to come to a complete stop, I often slow down just enough to make sure the way is clear before doing a second "California Roll".

This morning was par for the course as I rolled through the Stop Sign, but after making the left turn and heading down towards the traffic lights I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a car turn onto the road behind me. Not from my street but from the next one up. He sped up quickly and caught up with me just before I got to the lights, and just as I'd had that inkling many, many years ago, somehow this morning I thought it prudent to come to a complete stop at the red traffic light before making my right-hand turn.

As I made the turn the car followed me around the corner and just like that I found myself bathed in alternating red and blue lights. I pulled over and the cop car, because of course it was a cop car, pulled up behind me.

I glanced in my mirror and noticed a second car pulling up behind the first. Two cop cars? Must be a slow night/morning.

Okay. Turn off the engine. Turn the ignition back on to power down my window then turn it off again. Remove my beanie (to lower my perceived threat level), hands on the steering wheel, look in my mirrors and...the cop is coming up on my right, on the passenger side. That's fair enough, I guess. Unusual, and not SOP, but I guess it's safer than standing out in traffic.

Turn on the ignition again, power down the passenger-side window, turn off the ignition. Hands back on the steering wheel (again).

Cop leans over and peers in passenger-side window: Good morning, sir.

Me: Good morning, sir. How are you this morning?

Cop: Very well, thank you, sir. How are you?

Me: I'm good, thanks.

Cop (smiling, points to my left): The other side.

I turn and notice a second cop is standing next to my driver's side window.

Me: Sorry, sir. Good morning, how are you?

Cop #2: Is this your vehicle, sir?

Me: Yes, sir.

Cop #2: You live around here?

Me: Yes, sir.

Cop #2: Where abouts?

Me: Just back around the corner, sir. Where I was coming from.

Cop #2: What's the address?

Well, duh! Of course that's what he was asking. I give him my address.

Cop #2: Show me your license.
(This cop is obviously the bad cop.)

I tell the cop that my license is in my bag next to me (rather than in my wallet in my hip or back pocket) and that I'll need to get it out. (Don't Taze me, bro!)

The cop acknowledges this and I open my backpack, remove my wallet, and hand over my license. The two cops go back to the first car, return a minute or so later, hand me my license and bid me good day.

I start up my car, turn on my left turn signal (to signal that I'm pulling out from the curb, of course! Duh! There's a cop behind me! :P) and pull out. As I drive down the block I glance in my mirror. The two cop cars are gone. They can only have made an illegal u-turn and gone back the other way.

So was I not a random stop that morning? Were they looking for someone in my neighborhood and pulled me over in case I was their suspect? There was no breathalyzer, no search of the car, they didn't even ask for proof of insurance. They ran my license, then having verified that I was not "their guy" (or wanted for anything) they let me go. As far as traffic stops go, it was quite painless.

I wonder, if I had not come to a complete stop at the Red Light before making my turn, would they have written me a ticket?

Then again, given how many people do not stop at Red Lights before turning, did I draw attention to myself by obeying the law?

Was my Copdar a blessing this morning, or a curse? I guess we'll never know.

Punctuality

We recently we had an informational meeting in our office scheduled, apparently, for 8am. Because a Rep was coming in to make the presentation attendance was also mandatory, apparently.

A few minutes before 0800 my supervisor reminded me and my coworkers about the meeting and off we went.

When I walked in I noticed the Rep had already arrived and was chatting with our Director, and that the meeting did not appear to be in any danger of starting on time.

Other staff began slowly arriving.

At approx. fifteen minutes past the hour the Director finally got the meeting underway and the Rep started her spiel. It lasted all of 10 minutes. During her presentation people were still slowly dawdling in.

The last of the stragglers arrived just as the Director wrapped up the meeting. They walked in, saw the meeting was over, and turned and walked straight back out.

Airsoft, part deux

I played again last night and due to inadequate head protection, both natural and artificial, I got a bit of an owie.

This was due to friendly fire, which some may refer to as not-so-friendly fire. I didn't realize it was a team mate who nailed me, but as I'd accidentally shot my own team mates more than a couple of times throughout the night maybe it was less a case of friendly fire and more a case of street justice, airsoft-style. If so, I had it coming. No quarter given, none expected.

The guy who shot me was eliminated shortly afterward and joined me in the staging area where I was holding a bloody handkerchief to my head (head wounds bleed like a stuck pig). He sat down next to me and apologized and admitted it was him who shot me. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it wasn't. Maybe he saw me bleeding all over the place and felt guilty. Either way, I accepted his apology. It's all part of the game and if I'd had my head covered up it would have stung but not cut (it wasn't the first headshot I copped that night), so it's as much my fault as anyone else.

A few people on the other team seemed to have money to burn the way they were almost constantly shooting on full-auto, literally hosing down the barrier you were hiding behind. You could pop out and try to hit them with a brief burst but the constant rattle of bb's against the plyboard sounded painful, and discouraging (it made you unhappy ;)

Then there were the barrel-mounted ultra-bright LED flashlights, which seemed intended more to blind you, the target, than illuminate the area.

Given this unsportsmanlike behaviour, is it any surprise that I suspect a couple of them were also not calling themselves out when hit? And apparently I wasn't the only one thinking this.

One of the Officials mentioned to Mike and me when we sat out one game that they had a "Throw your team mate under the bus" policy, where if you ratted out a cheating player and the Refs caught him cheating you got a free Pass for another night. The only reason I can think of for why he'd mention this is that even he & the Refs suspected some players were cheating, they just hadn't been able to catch them.

On the way home the boys also said there were people not calling themselves out. That they'd shot people who just kept on playing. Mike (a 15-year airsoft veteran) said when that happens you just keep shooting at them until they do. I said I would have done that...if I hadn't been hit myself :P

Despite the possible cheaters and the head wound (which occurred during one of the last games of the night) I still had a great time, more importantly so did my son. His vest blocked a potential nut shot in one game, but in another he got hit multiple times in the upper arm and wound up with a bruise. Despite that, and the possible cheating, he still insisted he enjoyed himself and still wants to play again. I think I may have created a little monster there, too ;)

Airsoft

Sunday afternoon I visited the local airsoft arena with my son and a few of our friends. The boys went in first while I stayed outside and tried to take a couple of photographs through the observer's window. Although visibility through the plexiglass window was good, the photos themselves came out blurred and foggy.
When the staff saw me trying to take photographs they offered to let me go into the staging area for a better view but asked I sign a liability waiver first. I also had get clearance from the wife because the camera I was using, a Nikon D40, is actually her camera. Surprisingly, she allowed me to take her camera into the staging area. Not surprisingly however, I was threatened with consequences worse than death should anything happen to her baby, and I don't mean our son ;)

Unfortunately, while I was able to get better photos from the staging area, I was restricted to the staging area, and once my son and friends advanced further into the arena my view was obstructed by the maze of plywood walls.

After a couple of games there was a brief break, and at that point one of the Referees asked if I wanted to accompany him up onto his Referee's platform so I could get an even better view of what was going on. Duh! Of course I did!

From my raised vantage point midfield I now had a great view, although my son was still frequently disappearing behind the plywood walls which made getting pictures of him a hit & miss affair. But when I realized that by focusing on him I was giving away his position and increasing his risk of being shot I stopped looking for him and just took pictures of anyone and everyone.

With folks running around all over the place I tried taking a few photos using the D40's "action" mode but they didn't come out too well, and after noticing the quality of "action" shots I switched the camera back to Auto and just let rip. And that's the beauty of a digital camera; you can take hundreds of photos then delete the ones that don't turn out, because if you take enough photos odds are you're going to get some gems, and I believe I did.

This was probably my favourite pic of the day. These two guys both knew the other was there and this was an exciting "duel" to watch from above as they each tried to get the drop on the other without getting shot themselves; I can only imagine how intense it must have been for them. Later, I would find out just how heart-pounding such a moment could get.

The Referees themselves were armed, and they were occasionally shooting at the players. Sometimes they did so to check if that particular player was honest and would call themselves out, other times it was to get their attention if they were doing something wrong, such as continuing to shoot at a "dead" player who was leaving the arena. The Refs also occasionally took potshots at each other, and the Ref on my platform quickly realized the advantage of having a photographer with him and used me as a human shield...which is probably why the other Ref later asked me to join him on his platform. He said I could get a different viewpoint but I think he wanted his own time with the human shield ;)

Not intending to play I'd dressed light, in t-shirt and jeans, and at one point I got hit in the shoulder. If you imagine someone giving you a solid flick with their fingernail, that's what it felt like. A stinging impact followed by a minute or two of dull ache, and then you forgot about it.

So why are these guys wearing vests, helmets, gloves, etc?
When my son played last year at his cousin's birthday party one of the kids came back with a cut on his finger while another had a cut on his arm. If I could be stuffed doing the math (and I probably will at some point) a 6mm plastic ball traveling at 300-350 feet per second probably creates a considerable amount of impact pressure (pounds per square inch, and all that) so yeah, it's going to hurt, and if you're not protected skin can be broken...as I would soon find out ;)

After spending most of the evening taking photographs I rejoined my son and friends in their locker room and told them as it was getting late we could only stay for one more set of games. My friend, Mike, threw me a spare vest and an MP5K (he shoots a lot and has a ton of gear), and told me to suit up because I wasn't leaving without playing. I pulled the vest on over my t-shirt, tied a bandana around my neck, and put on my gloves (I'm a Boy Scout, I'd come prepared, even if I didn't intend to play ;) and hit the staging area, this time armed with something packing a little more punch than a camera.

In our first game Mike told me to stick close to him, which didn't work too well. While following Mike and trying to cover his back I felt several bb's impact the front of my vest while someone else shot me from behind. That last bb zipped in beneath my vest & t-shirt but above the waist of my jeans. Yeah, it stung, and I was pretty sure it had left a mark. (It did. Meh.)

"Hit!" I called out, holding my gun up, and I walked off the field followed by Mike, because whoever shot me had got him, too.

"I didn't even see where they came from!" I exclaimed to Mike.

"That's usually how it goes," he replied.

In the second game I again got eliminated, but this time at least I not only saw my opponents but even got off a couple of shots. Unfortunately they were camped in corner of their base, behind cover, and they proved to be a little more accurate than me, with a single shot impacting the front of my vest.

"Hit!" I called out again, and as I passed the guy that nailed me added, "Good shot!"

It just so happened that these guys were camped right next to the staging area, where the "dead" players retired to, and when I looked around I noticed Mike and I were the only ones from our team. Both our sons were still out there.

The guys that took me out were behind an L-shaped obstacle on my left. They were protected from the front, and from the arena wall on their left, but despite their cover being an "L" their right flank was slightly exposed to anyone approaching from the right-hand side along the rear wall...which is where my son was coming from.

I don't know if our sons planned it, or if it was just good timing, but as Mike's son attacked from the front and drew their fire my son came in from the side to outflank them, and from about 30 feet away he picked off the tallest of the two kids. I know it was my son who got him because he stopped firing and looked to his right, directly at my son, then he held his gun up in the air and stepped back toward the staging area.

The other kid also turned and looked to the right, and seeing that my son was the more immediate threat turned to shoot at him instead. My little warrior backed up and dodged sideways, not making himself an easy target, all the while returning fire. Accurate fire at that, because his opponent quickly stopped shooting, threw his gun up in the air, and with that the Ref blew his whistle to end that match.

My son had just eliminated the last two opponents. It might sound a little macho, a little barbaric even, but I was SO proud of him.

The final game of the series the Refs told us would be a little different. We're going to turn out the lights occasionally, they said, and when they're out you can move but you cannot shoot.

Again I went out with Mike, this time being a lot more cautious, and when the lights went out it was nerve wracking. I lost Mike when the lights went out for the second time and found myself mid-field. Realizing I was standing between our opponent's base and a single piece of plyboard against the side of the arena wall I quickly ducked back around the plyboard, back on our side, backed into the corner, and crouched down.

Barely seconds later a figure appeared from behind the board from where I'd just came, walked across in front of me, then leaned against the edge of a "house" to look down toward our end of the field.

With my heart racing I pointed my MP5K at his back and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. He was just 5-to-6 feet away, too close to shoot; at that distance the in-house rules required me to order him to "surrender". I waited, ready for the lights to come back on

The lights stayed off.

The guy ducked inside the "house" and disappeared from view.

The lights stayed off.

Another figure appeared from my left. Another opponent. Déjà vu.

And just as his teammate who came before him this second guy also leaned against the "house" while looking down towards our end of the field. Just as before I tried to keep my breathing low & slow as I pointed my MP5K at this guy's back, and again I waited for the lights to come back on.

The lights stayed off.

This second guy also ducked into the "house".

The lights came back on.

I jumped up, took a couple of quick steps to the doorway of the "house" and peered in. The two guys were both looking the other way, covering each other's flank, but neither guy was covering their rear.

Holding my MP5K more like I would my Beretta 96G than an actual rifle I took aim and double-tapped the guy on the left. Both guys turned at the sound to look behind them as I swung my MP5K and took aim at the second guy.

Should I order him to Surrender? Hell no. At this range it wasn't expected, and I offer no quarter and expect none in return. A second double tap and both guys were now "dead" and we all knew it.

As they raised their guns over their heads and started down toward the staging area I turned and rushed toward the back corner where I knew the remainder of their team were most likely camping, just as they had done in the earlier games.

And I was right.

I came out on the top left of the arena and saw three players camped behind a barrier on the far right hand side and we began exchanging fire across the 50-60 foot gap. Large enough distance to see the bb's flying back and forth, not enough to be able to dodge them.

One of the trio held up his rifle, hit, and emerged from behind the barrier to walk toward me. I have no idea why he came my way instead of down the wall back toward the staging area. The other two guys held their ground and I continued to fire. I may have hit the "dead" guy a couple more times as I shot at the two who were still "alive". Not intentionally, but at that distance bb's can curve through the air from the original point of aim. I was also looking at him as he walked toward me and in doing so I might have inadvertently aimed at him.

Then my MP5K started making a different sound; a louder popping noise which I knew meant no bb's. Mike's clip for this rifle had two clips side-by-side. Was the first one empty? I ducked back into cover, ejected the magazine, spun the dial on the bottom to "load" the second clip, slammed it home, then resumed firing.

POP! POP! POP!

What the...?

I ducked back into cover. Ejected the magazine and shook it. Rattle rattle rattle. There were bb's inside. I spun the dial some more, reinserted the magazine and fired into the wall directly in front of me. If a bb came out and bounced off the wall I didn't notice it. Seriously???

Then a Ref's whistle blew and when I stood up I saw Mike's helmet appear on their flank. I'd actually seen Mike earlier, but by drawing my opponents' attention and their fire I'd provided Mike with the opportunity he needed, and he'd taken it. Game over, we'd won.

My heart was racing like after an open world PvP encounter, and why wouldn't it be? This was PvP IRL.

I fear I may have unleashed a monster. No, that's not true; I don't fear it. I welcome it, and I think I'm going to like it :)

Deep thought

Normally my kids spend the weekends with their grandparents but this past weekend they stayed with us. The grandparents also take them to Church, so Saturday evening my daughter asked me if we were going to Church the next day. "Do you want to?" I asked her. "Yes, please!" she squealed excitedly. And so Sunday morning off we went, just the two of us.

When she asked why her brother wasn't coming I told her he didn't want to, and that he should go to Church because he wants to, not because someone else wants him to. Which is why I don't go to Church every week, either.

The funny thing with my Church is when I do go, the Minister's message seems to have been written specifically for me, almost as if it was divine providence that I attended that day (that's if you believe in that sort of thing).

And this day was no exception.

The first time I heard Luther Vandross' "Dance with my father" was in 2005, the year both Vandross and my own father passed away, and this Sunday, by coincidence (or was it?) the Minister used this song as the basis for his sermon. Needless to say I had tears running down my cheeks before he'd finished, and once again I felt as if wasn't there that day by mere chance.

This afternoon while walking from my office to the train station I passed a couple standing on the sidewalk staring forlornly at a parking meter. As I walked by I recalled that morning feeling change in my trouser pocket, and I patted my hip; yes, the coins were still there. I reached into my pocket and pulled out two quarters, looked at them, then turned back and said to the couple, "excuse me, would you folks be needing some change?"

They gratefully accepted the coins, and thanked me as they inserted them into the meter, and I wished them a good day and resumed walking to the train station.

At the last intersection before the station I waited to cross the road and watched as my train pulled into the station. "Guess I'm waiting for the next one," I thought to myself.

The light changed and I walked across the road.

And up the ramp to the platform.

And...the train remained in the station.

Expecting the train to pull out the moment I started to run I casually walked through the gate and swiped my Rail Card.

And then, as if Gandalf himself was urging me to "Run, you fools!" I started running.

And as I slipped into the last carriage and took a seat the doors closed and the train pulled out.

Coincidence? Karma? Providence? You decide.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

Maybe it's just me, but the title of that Nursery Rhyme makes no sense. Other than for the sake of rhyming, why is Mary quite contrary? Nothing in the Rhyme itself indicates she is particularly argumentative or inclined to do the opposite of what is expected.

My father-in-law, however, IS quite contrary, deliberately and stubbornly so. If he's right there is no arguing otherwise; he's right and that's it. Don't think you can agree to disagree or say, "Well, that's your opinion," because his opinion is not just his opinion; it's The Truth.

We had dinner at their house a couple of nights ago, and after dinner the mother-in-law produced a bunch of bananas and offered me one. Or maybe my 7 y/old daughter brought them to me and asked if she could have one. I forget which, but somehow I ended up with a bunch of bananas in front of me.

I like bananas. I like them soft and pungent, and I like them firm and barely ripe. I've also eaten, partially, a green banana that was not quite ripe and was still fluffy & bitter in the middle. Bite into an unripe banana once and you never forget it. I haven't, and that was over 20 years ago.

I looked at this bunch of bananas with their bright green tops and bottoms, and the streaks of green running along the sides of skins, and as much as I like bananas I declined, stating that they were a bit green.

As soon as I said this the FIL said "No, they're not," lunged across the table and grabbed the bunch of bananas from in front of me.

(As well as being stubbornly contrary he also lacks table manners and if there's a dish or item he wants he will reach across the table or across your plate to get it. Don't bother protesting or arguing with him; he's "right" so he sees nothing wrong with doing this.)

Pulling a banana off a bunch is tough unless they're ripe, and these bananas were not ripe but green, really green, so their skins were exceptionally tough. The FIL ended up tearing the bananas almost in half in order to get them off the bunch. He ripped one free for my daughter, then as if doing so proved they weren't green tore a second banana free for himself.

Midway through her banana I saw my daughter stop chewing and screw up her face and I knew what had happened; she'd got a mouthful of green banana. Green, furry, bitter banana. She stopped chewing and I could tell she wanted to spit the banana out and I couldn't blame her.

She looked around at us and noticed I was the only one looking at her. "Go spit it out," I said to her, and she rushed over to the trashcan.

"What's the matter?" asked my MIL.

"The banana's not ripe," I told her.

"Mine was fine!" said the FIL, contrary to the last bite.

I can has PS2 ?

A friend of mine (who is a little bit better off than me) has a Wii, a PS3, and an XBox 360. His Wii is set up in the living room, his XBox is in the spare room, and his PS3 sits out in the guesthouse. I asked him if he still actually uses his PS3 and he said he's planning to, because a couple of his other friends are playing the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 3 and he wants to play with them.

I don't use my PS2 though, he added, which is how I acquired a PS2 and a dozen games. He apparently has more PS2 games scattered around his house but he gave me (gave, as in freely, not sold) what he could scrape together at a moments notice. This included Time Crisis 3 but no gun :( and a DDR Dance Pad but no actual DDR disc. With my friend being a gun nut (like me) several of the games were FPS games, and several others were racing games (he's also a bit of a petrol head). I prefer my FPS on a PC (I might be biased but WASD + mouse-look still pwns gamepads) and aside from Mario Kart I'm not really into the driving games. In fact as I flipped through the discs my friend had given me I realized his taste in video games is quite different to mine. Still, a free PS2 and a DDR Dance Pad are nothing to sneeze at, even if I didn't have a DDR game to go with the Dance Pad.

I decided to resolve that situation and went online to see what were the best DDR games for the PS2. Apparently DDR Extreme 2 and DDR Max 2 both came highly recommended. As there's a Gamestop just a block from where I park my car on my commute into work I decided to stop in on my way home. There was no DDR Extreme or Max 2, but there was Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII. I also decided to grab God of War II for $10, then promptly put it back when I ran across a second GoW II case with a $7 price tag. At the counter the cashier noticed the sticker on the God of War II box was for the first God of War game (bugger), then because I had two very lengthy RPGs and one (apparently quite short) Hack & Slash, he actually suggested I not get GoW II at all. A downsell? How refreshing! Then he couldn't find the DQ8 disc so I ended up only buying FF XII. He looked up which of the nearby stores should have DQ8 in stock, then handed me not just FF XII but the DQ8 case. No point us having the case but no disc, he said. What a nice fellow.

Earlier that week I'd been talking to a couple of coworkers about my "new" PS2 and DDR Dance Pad, and I lamented how I didn't have a DDR game. The next day one of those coworkers came into work and handed me a shopping bag. I opened it up and there inside awas another Dance Pad, along with a DDR game and the original Rayman Raving Rabbids game. No, she hadn't bought it for me. Apparently a friend (who she lost contact with) had once loaned her his old PS2, and when he'd taken it back she had (inadvertently) kept DDR & the Dance Pad (and Raving Rabbids). His loss was my gain.

I now had a DDR game (although it wasn't DDR Max 2) and FF XII, along with the games my friend had given me (which I'm unlikely to play) but I decided I still needed more variety in my new PS2 library. Some online research turned up a few lists along the lines of "Best Looking PS2 games of all time", "Must Own PS2 titles", etc.

I already knew I needed to track down a copy of DQ8, and I'd already acquired FF XII, and both of those were on the list. I also figured I had to have both a Ratchet & Clank, and a Jak & Daxter title. Not having either of those would be like having a Nintendo with no Mario or Zelda games. Sacrilege! So R&C:Up Your Arsenal went on the list, along with Jak 3, allegedly the pick of the bunch for those series. The last one to make the cut and the #1 title on a couple of those "must have" lists was God of War II. The cashier might have been nice enough to give me the empty DQ8 case, but judging my video game preferences based on a couple of titles was erroneous, to say the least. I also wanted a Tekken title, and Tekken 5 is apparently very highly recommended, but it was also $15 and none of the other titles on my list were over $10. I'm sure it will eventually come down to $10, or maybe I'll buy it at a later date for $15, but not just yet.

Gamestop games come with a 7-day money-back guarantee, so the first thing I did once I had the time (being today) was to check that my new, pre-owned discs all worked, and they did. FF XII and DQ8 both looked as good as I had anticipated, Ratchet, and Jak were as cutesy as your standard Mario title, but the winner and the first game I played (after DDR ;) was God of War II, and I was still playing it when my wife finally got home from her errands.

Lengthy RPGs like FF XII and DQ8 are all well and good but sometimes you just want to jump into a game for some mindless slaughter, and God of War not only delivers that in spades but looks damn good while doing it. Not bad for a game on a 10 year old system.

Skylanders:Spyro's Adventure

Penny Arcade have been doing a pretty good job of plugging the attractiveness of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and they piqued my interest enough to check it out. After learning more about the game, and with my daughter's 7th birthday coming up, I thought "This is the perfect gift for her!"

R i i i i i i ght. For her. S u u u u r e it is.

Yes, you're right. It would make a better Christmas present for my 11 y/old son.

Riiiii... Okay, okay! Enough! Yes! I wanted it, too.

So what if the boy doesn't know it exists? When he does learn about it, he will want it. This, I know.

Last Sunday the cat woke me up early, as she does most mornings (even on my days off. Stupid cat. Don't you know it's Sunday?) so I got up, retrieved the Times from the doorstep (Hooray for early delivered papers) fed the cat, made myself breakfast, then sat down to read the paper. Which for me means separating the comics and mountain of catalogs from the rest of the sections, reading comics, then browsing the more important of the catalogs, Big 5, Best Buy, Toys R Us, etc.

And I saw that Toys R Us were running one of their "Buy Two, Get a Third Video Game/Accessory Free" deal, with a big "We have Skylander figures!" plug at the bottom of the page.

The Skylanders' Starter Pack retails for $70, which might seem a little expensive except that most new, full-price games sell for $60, so that's only $10 more, and you also don't get just the game in the Skylanders' Starter Pack. Included is a Skylanders Portal, which being somewhat (absolutely) necessary to play the game one could argue it should be included anyway at no additional charge (and I'd agree with you).

You also get three game figures (yes, actual figurines) which are also necessary to play the game. However, Activision could have done the bare minimum and included just one figure in the Starter Pack and still charged $70 for it, so if you factor in that those two figures would normally cost you $8 each now you're getting two "bonus" figures at a 33% discount. And I'm okay with that.

When placed on the Skylanders Portal those figures appear in the game as your playing character, and as each character has different powers they do add value & variety to even a single-player game. Additionally, there are numerous 'bonus' areas in the game which cannot be accessed unless certain characters are present. You can play through to the end of the game and beat The Final Boss using just the 3 characters in the Starter Pack, but you'll have to skip certain areas along the way because you won't be able to access them. Long story short, each figure/character belongs to one of eight different Elemental Groups, and certain areas can only be unlocked by characters from a specific Elemental Group. You don't need a figure from each Elemental Group to beat the game, but if you want to complete it 100% you will.

In addition to being your playing character, the figures serve additional purposes. They come with a memory chip inside them, and everything you achieve in the game for that character is automatically saved to the figure itself. As your character levels up & gets stronger & finds/buys new weapons, etc., those changes get saved to the figure's memory chip. And for the first time that I'm aware of (and I've been around for some time) these figures are cross-platform compatible, meaning you can take your figure to your friend's house, pop it on his Skylander Portal, and even though you've been playing on your Wii and he has a PS3, it doesn't matter; your character will appear in his game. Also by visiting your friend's house with your Skylanders' figures, or vice versa, you can help each other unlock those otherwise inaccessible areas.

Because I recently won the Office Weight Loss competition and picked up $400 for my trouble I had some extra cash burning a hole in my wallet, so with my mind made up I trotted off to Toys R Us and picked up the Skylanders' game. Because they had the Awesome! "Buy 2, get 1 Free" deal I also added two 3-character packs to my cart, saving myself $20 and reducing the price per figure to a shade over $3.

So now the Skylanders' game and nine figures/characters are waiting for a lucky young boy to open them on Christmas day. Except he doesn't know about Skylanders yet.

(And in case you're wondering I took my daughter on a shopping spree at Toys R Us. I am not a bad father.)

This weekend after a family outing we found ourselves at the local Mall, and while the wife went shopping the kids and I wound up at Dave & Busters. After playing several games and "winning" a bunch of tickets we cashed them in and entered the prize room. My daughter picked out one of those plastic echo-micophones but my son decided he wanted to save up his tickets. D&B also have a small selection of video games available at the checkout counter and while waiting for the cashier I was surprised to see they had a copy of Skylanders, for the Wii no less.

It was at the end of their glass cabinet so we could see the back side of the box, and my son's eyes lit up when he saw it. It's a big box, maybe 12"x18" in size, and it's colorful graphics are very eye catching. It is a boy magnet. It was also 15,000 tickets and we have just half that. The cashier took the box out of the cabinet so we (the boy ;) could look at it a little more closely. She also said she thought it looked pretty cool (or maybe she was just being a good salespeon), and said how much fun we would have playing the D&B games together and saving our tickets up.

To his credit the boy was financially savvy enough to recognize that buying the game outright was a better deal than paying $20 every few weeks to "win" 1,000 tickets. He was also sharp enough to notice that while the game box contained 3 figures, the pictures on the box showed a whole lot more.

We stopped at Gamestop on the way out of the Mall and after viewing the small display they have there (it has nothing on the wall of figures and adventure packs at Toys R Us) the hook was well & truly set. The boy knew Skylanders existed, and he wanted them. Like I knew he would.

Later I told Liz that the boy had seen his Christmas present, he just didn't know it. Then again he's pretty smart. Maybe he does ;)

He'll also possibly talk Skylanders up among his friends. Some of who may get it before Christmas, some for Christmas, and some may miss out altogether. I'm anticipating it to be a hot-ticket item this Christmas, in demand not just by young boys but those young-at-heart, and from talking to salespeons in both TRU and Gamestop that IS what I'm hearing, that 20-30 y/old gamers are buying it for themselves. This 42-year old gamer did...sort of :P

If Skylanders is the hot potato that I expect it to be, come Christmas time demand for the cross-platform compatible figures alone is going to be through the roof. And in the weeks after Christmas, maybe even more so.

"Daddy! There's a locked room in my game, Daddy! I can't get in without a Fire Skylander! Daddy! I need a Fire Skylander! DADDY! I WANT FIRE SLINGER, DADDY!!!"

Well played, Activision. Well played, indeed.

Magic: Steam review (Demo version)

I'm running Windows XP SP3 and playing Steam's Demo version of Magic:Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 on an Athlon 2600+ w/ 2GB of RAM and a 512MB AGP (*Edit* not PCI as first thought) GeForce 6200, and it runs like a 15 y/old dog with Hip Dysplasia.

Seriously???

It's MAGIC:THE GATHERING!!! It's a CARD GAME for Pete's sake!!! Even Wizard101 runs better than Steam's Magic:TG. If my experience is anything to go by, don't bother trying to play it on anything more than a few years old.

The game itself looks good. The layout of the playing field is well designed and everything fits on the one screen without it getting cluttered. The cards are colorful and look just like Magic cards, with the exception that they're on your monitor and not in your hand. Then again this IS the computer version so I can't really fault it for that. The UI is very user friendly and I thought it rather intuitive, and I liked being able to mouse-over cards and use the scroll wheel to zoom in, which is how you activate your cards' abilities.

Except...one of my creatures had an ability that if I Tapped it and one Plains Card I was supposed to be able to Tap an opponent's card. Despite having a Plains Card untapped I was not able to access this ability. I wanted to Tap my opponent's sole Untapped Creature so he couldn't defend but the game pushed me straight from the Play a Land phase into the Attack Phase. Attacking with that card (a 1/1) was certain death as the Computer opponent had a 4/5 Defender. Instead I was forced to wait, then Block him (& die, but not lose Health) instead of being able to Tap his Attacker first. I still won that particular match but it was literally a "sudden death" game where I won with just 1 HP left.

That leads me into something I really didn't like: the Tutorial.

I played the Tutorial just to get an idea of how the UI worked (although as I said it was fairly intuitive), and I did not like how the Tutorial frequently forced me to Attack immediately after drawing a Card from my Deck. Before I even played a Land card the Tutorial insisted I Attack.

Now in my books the correct order of play is Untap any Tapped Cards, Draw a Card, play a Land (if you have one), summon creatures/cast spells/play Equipment, etc., THEN Attack. And I find that a very logical order in which to do things.

Why? You might have a creature with Haste, which does not suffer from Summoning Sickness. If you Attack prior to Summoning your Creatures then this particular Creature cannot make use of its Haste ability, and as the only time Haste comes into play is the Turn in which a Creature is summoned it seems extremely stupid to summon it AFTER Attacking.

No! You can't play a Land right now. OR Summon that creature. Why Not? Because I told you to Attack! Stop clicking that damn Land card!

So -1 points for poor AI/programming.

How many points is that? -1? Huh. That can't be right, because aside from the stupid lessons taught to you in the Tutorial, Steam's Magic:TG actually seems like a decent game, or it would be if I was playing it on a machine which could run it smoothly. That's probably my biggest complaint. It's a card game, and yet it seems to require a reasonably new machine in order to run smoothly.

The Full Version of the game on Steam costs $10. Would I pay that for it? I don't know. Probably not. That $10 would buy me 3 Boosters of real Magic cards, and I'd buy them before buying the Steam version of the game. I only downloaded the Demo version to see what it was like. Would I pay $5 for the full version? Yeah, I probably would, but only after buying a $500 PC that will actually run it :D

*EDIT*
I installed the Demo on my other PC, which is now the wife's PC. It's a dual core Athlon 4200+ and like my archaic PC it's also running Windows XP SP3 with 2GB of RAM, but unlike the older box it's equipped with a GeForce 8800GT. On this rig the Magic:Plainswalkers Demo runs as smooth as silk.

I need a new PC.

285 Magic TCG cards for $20? SOLD!

A few weeks ago my son and I were in Target with the wife, so while she wandered off to do her thing we stopped by our favorite section (or maybe it's the second favorite, after the video games) of Target, being the Trading Card aisle.

We saw the 2012 Magic: TCG Fat Pack, which comes with two deck boxes, 80 Land cards, and nine 15-card boosters, being 215 cards total for $40! That's a lot of cards for $40 (at $3-$4 each the nine boosters alone are almost worth that) and I was seriously contemplating getting it. Then we saw the 2011 Deck Builder's Tool Kit.

It didn't have any deck boxes (meh), but it did have 100 land cards, another 125 random Spell cards, and four 15-card boosters, for a total of 285 cards. Woah! Even MORE cards! But unlike the Fat Pack it did not have a price sticker.

"It's got to be at least $40," I said to my son, "maybe even $50. Let's see how much it is."

So we picked it up and walked further into the store until we found a price scanner, and when it rang up at $20 we could not believe our eyes. It has a third more cards than the 2012 Fat Pack, but for half the price. Crazy! So of course we bought it. (Yes, it's the 2011 series. So what?)

We didn't get any OMG! Awesome! Foil cards from the Booster packs, but using the strategy recommended by the booklet (and some of our other spare cards) we did throw together five 60-card decks, being 24 Land cards plus 36 Spells, Creatures, etc. to go with them.

And then we Dueled.

I went with a poison-filled Black/Red Deck, while my son chose a Blue/Green Deck with several Elementals and Wyrms. The Wyrms are High cost Creatures but they're hard hitting game changers and when they get into play an unopposed Wyrm can kill you in two-to-three Turns.

So far we've played 7 games with these two Decks and he has been kicking my arse, and when I say he's been kicking my arse I really mean it. Out of those 7 games I've won just 2, and one of those was really just due to the luck of the draw (as in bad luck on his part) where he had a bunch of Green Spells/Creatures in his hand and nothing but Blue Lands. So he couldn't summon much of anything, and whatever he did summon I quickly shut down. I finished that particular game completely unscathed, still at full health.

In the other game I won it seemed like everything finally came together for me. I got the right cards out at the right time, I was able to weaken his stronger Cards, and I didn't steamroll him like he's been doing to me, but it was still a decisive win.

I also thought I might have him in the most recent game we played as I'd used a spell to Destroy his 4/4 Creature (the strongest he had on the table, at the time) and after a pitched battle we had one Creature each in play and mine was the stronger. Yay!

Then he summoned a Wyrm.

On his next Turn he cast Sleep and Tapped my solitary Creature so I couldn't Block even if I wanted to, and on his final Turn used an Instant to return it to my hand. I have to give him credit where it's due, he does know how to use his cards effectively and strategically.

I still think I need to tweak my deck a little though, so I can be more competitive against him. You could say we've Dueled two times, playing four games the first time, and three the second, and I won just 1 game in each of those two sessions.

My Deck's strength appears to be my Black Cards which can Poison (-1/-1, or worse) and debilitate his Creatures, even his 7/7 Wyrms. When it works, it works well. The problem is I don't seem able to get my cards into play fast enough, and when I do I'm overwhelmed.

Could it be a "Rock beats Scissors beats Paper" kind of thing? That my Black/Red Deck is just not strong against his Green/Blue Deck. Does that exist in Magic TCG? I assume it does, else everyone would just try to have THE Uber Pwng Deck that nothing can beat.

I don't have powerful Creatures like his Wyrms, which usually require 6-7 Lands to Summon. Most of my Creatures require 3-4 Lands and some need just 2, or even just 1.

It's not that I don't have Lands in play because we both have the recommended 24 Lands in our Decks.

Actually, maybe I don't have enough Lands.

With a majority of low cost Creatures in my deck maybe I should increase my Land count to 30 cards, with the strategy being to be able to play one Land every Turn (and never stop playing them), meaning after the first, uneventful 5-to-6 Turns have passed I'll be able to Summon more than just one Creature per Turn. That's assuming I have Creatures in my Hand and it's not filled with Lands. That's definitely something to think about.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to crush the boy. He's only 11 and he has a lot of fun playing Magic with his old man. Likewise I'm enjoying the time we spend together, too. (Who knows how long that will last?) It's not even that I mind losing to him; one of my favorite time wasters on my phone is Solitaire, so I can accept losing game after game after game. I don't mind losing to him, but I'd at least like to go down fighting.

The Proof is in the Pudding

After slaughtering 50,000 damage worth of lvl 22-24 Ogres (being approx. 75 Ogres @ 650hp each) in Duskwood's Vul'Gol Ogre Mound, my level 20 Arms Warrior armed with the 2H Reef Axe from Blackfathom Deeps averaged 82.5dps, as seen in the below screenshot. (Yes, I cut & pasted the Recount Window into a second screenshot.)

After repeating the experiment and terrorizing the Ogres a second time, this time as a Fury Warrior but still with the exact same gear, I averaged 94.6dps. As you can see from the second screenshot the passive buff from the Fury Tree's "Precision" skill, being +3% to Hit and +40% to Autoattack, provides a significant boost to my base/white Damage, and definitely helps to explain the almost 15% increase in overall DPS.

I ran Shadowfang Keep as an Arms Warrior in between the two attacks on the Vul'Gol Ogres, and with all of the group buffs and the passive buff from using the Random LFG Tool I managed to pull 100dps, being the same as what I managed on my own as a Fury Warrior.

After respec'ing Fury, traditionally a dual-wield Build, I first equipped two Baron's Scepters and slaughtered a dozen or so Ogres, just to see how well Fury worked when dual-wielding. In short, it didn't. Using what are probably the best two 1H weapons a level 20 Fury Warrior can get my DPS averaged in the mid-70s. It did jump into the low 80s when I got in a string of Crits, but would just as quickly slide back into the mid-70 range when my Gnome went nose-to-kneecap with the Ogres for longer than a few seconds, which as a dual-wielding Fury Warrior it usually did.

In fact fighting the Ogres as a dual-wielding Fury Warrior felt almost exactly like fighting them as an Arms Warrior, with combat usually lasting at least 5-6 seconds. I noticed I missed many attacks, and also got Parried a lot. Even with the combined +4 to Hit buff from wielding two Baron's Scepters, the lower damage output meant I was still in combat for a lot longer than when I equipped the Reef Axe (as Fury). The bonus to Hit from not dual-wielding meant a lot less of my attacks got Parried, and thus a lot more of my attacks landed, and when you're hitting Mobs with the Reef Axe they know they've been HIT!!! As a Fury Warrior wielding the Reef Axe it was not uncommon to rush into combat and lay out an Ogre within 2-3 hits, and with the first three attacks being Victory Rush, Autoattack, and Bloodthirst, those 3 attacks could all land within 2-3 seconds. If even one of them was a Crit it was usually lights out, but if the Ogre was still standing and Execute hadn't lit up I'd throw in a Heroic Strike and that would inevitably get the job done.

The end result from terrorizing the Vul'Gul Ogres is what I've argued all along, that at lower levels Arms is a sub-par DPS build to Fury, and that even if you have two of the best one-handed weapons available for your level you're still better off using a comparable 2H weapon instead of dual-wielding. In my case, 15% better off.

The PUG from Hell that wasn't

Tonight I ran Shadowfang Keep on my Hunter in an attempt to get the mats for the Hunter Quest Crossbow. After waiting a while we finally got a group together, and the Healer turned out to be surprisingly chatty. I don't mind that. Likewise if folks want to do a silent Run, that's okay, too. Get in, get the job done, get the fuck out. As long as everyone knows their role, if folks want to chat, or not, I'm good either way.

Except this particular Healer mentioned she was not only new to WoW but it was her first Instance. Just like that our Group was missing a Tank. We had a Cat Druid who switched to Bear so we went in and took down the Trash. Then the Healer asked why was the Druid a Bear.

"Because if he wasn't a Bear we'd all be dead." I replied.

The queue hadn't found us a Tank so we moved on and the Bear rushed the first Boss. We actually succeeded in bringing him down and despite being new to Healing I thought our newbie Healer did just fine. Just after the Boss died we got a replacement Tank, who was puzzled as to why our DPS Druid was in Bear form. I made the mistake of complimenting our Healer on how good she was doing for a first time Healer, and just like that our replacement Tank went AWOL. Oops.

We moved into the courtyard, cleared it, then wiped in the kitchen. As we ran back in the Healer DC'd, a Kick Vote prompt came up, and now we were three DPS LF Tank & Healer. I declined to choose a role, deciding I'd rather wait for a brand new group. And I imitated our first two Tanks by dropping out.

Rather than sit on my arse in Stormwind I got out and ran a few quests and it didn't take long before I was in a new group. This time we had a female Dwarf who, like our Healer, confessed that she was new to Tanking. At least she had close to 1,000 HP and she appeared to know what to do to hold Aggro so the Run was fairly uneventful, right up until the final Boss, Lord Godfrey. Caster extraordinaire, definitely not someone to be taken lightly.

Attempt #1 = my bad. Open with Serpent Sting to get my Pet attacking, followed by Aimed Shot. Steady Shot + Steady Shot for Improved Steady Shot. Arcane Shot. Arcane Shot and...why is the Boss targeting me? Oh yeah. MQoSRDPS is not a good thing when paired with a new Tank who has not established major Threat.

Attempt #2 = Noob Tank mistake. Note to future Tanks: do not begin a Boss encounter while your Healer is still running back from a Wipe.

Attempt #3 = Warlock Mistake. Note to Warlocks: do not bring a Voidwalker to a Boss fight.

The Party explained to the Warlock that Voidwalker is for Tanking and he's asked to summon Imp or "The Demon Lady with the Whip". Warlock doesn't respond. Warlock summons Voidwalker. I ask Warlock to summon Imp. Warlock still doesn't respond. Healer says he thinks Warlock is a Bot. I Vote to Kick Warlock for being a Bot. LOLs ensue in Party Chat and the Vote passes. Warlock is replaced with a Shadow Priest seriously decked out in Heirloom Gear. Cool. DPS should not be a problem. This time Lord Godfrey is going down.

The Tank states that this is going to be the final attempt because she needs to get to bed. The SPriest is informed that we've been getting our butt kicked by the final Boss so if he can help with Heals (if that's possible) to please do so. And with that the Tank runs up the stairs to the Boss's platform and begins the encounter. I wait. The Tank runs down the stairs to get under Boss's platform.

Note to future Tanks doing SFK: just jump off the platform, do not take the stairs back down.

The Boss makes it halfway down the stairs before stopping to cast. That's good enough for me and I begin my rotation. The Boss actually summons little guys. Being Ranged DPS I'm suddenly cognizant of just how many little guys he can summon. Wow! There's a lot of them! I start picking them off then resume DPSing the Boss...who summons more little guys. Again I target them and they die pretty quickly this time. Someone else must be killing them too.

And then the Tank dies. And I draw Aggro. Of course I do. The Boss runs toward me and when he's halfway up the stairs to my position I jump off. It's Kite time. If you read my Kwazimoto vs the Demon story then you know this is my game. I hit the stairs on the other side and head up to the Boss's platform. The Boss takes the long way back down the first set of stairs and I'm hammering him with everything I've got as he crosses back over. I'm hoping my fellow DPSers are doing the same. They must be because his health is definitely dropping. Somewhen during all of this he summoned more little guys, and they may be little but there's a lot of them and they sure are scary when you know they're gunning for you.

The Boss crosses the floor, flanked by his little army, and heads back up his stairs toward me. Just before he gets to me I leap off his platform, hit the floor, and head back over to the first set of the stairs. Once again the Boss takes the long way back down while I'm running away and jump shotting like a mad Hunter about to die.

This is a first for me. Normally I'm holding my breath and silently cheering on my party members as I watch this kind of thing from the floor where I died due to some Noob mistake (or a careless or slow-on-the-button Healer) but this time I'm in the middle of it and I don't. Die, that is. The Boss does, though. It was crazy fun.

Yes, we might have wiped a few times but it wasn't as frustrating as you might think. It may not be End Game Raiding where you play Simon Says while trying to beat the Boss's Enrage Timer but it was still a lot of fun. In the end I got the mats I needed for my new Crossbow and my Tooltip DPS went up by about 5 points while my actual DPS got a 10-point boost. And when it's all said and done, isn't that what Raiding is all about? Tiny little Stat increases? So what if it's Level 20 Raiding :D

Raiding in WoW at Level 20

Is there any real, major difference to "Raiding" at 20 vs the End Game?

You're still running Instances over, and over, and over again looking for that elusive drop that is barely an upgrade to what you already have. You still get Rogues rolling on Tank/Warrior Gear, like Silverlaine's Family Seal, a ring with +5 Strength and +3 Stamina. You still get Hunters rolling on everything, such as SFK's Haunting Blade, a 2H sword with +8 Strength...okay, and +6 to Hit. And you still get Know-It-Alls telling you to Learn2Play.

I decided to roll a Warrior because there's the option to Tank PUGs if one is feeling particularly masochistic or just desires shorter queues. But good Tanking gear is hard to come by in the game world, so you need to run as DPS then decide whether or not it's acceptable to Need Roll on a Shield if the Tank just Greed Rolls. Logic would dictate that if the Tank doesn't "Need" it, then it should be okay for you, as a wannabe Tank, to Need Roll. But there's the stigma of being seen as a Ninja if you do so, despite the fact that you've passed on every other thing that dropped so far. Plus most people think that if you want to Need Roll Tank gear you should queue up as a Tank while conveniently ignoring the fact that it's kind of hard for a Warrior to Tank without a Shield.

Now some items like the SFK Ring are no brainers. It's clearly a ring for anyone who can benefit from Strength & Stamina, whether that be a Paladin, Druid, or Warrior. Yes, like most classes a Rogue can also benefit from the +3Stamina (not sure how Strength affects a Rogue's AP though), but a Rogue who Need Rolls on a +Stamina Ring before the Tank rolls, or who Need Rolls after the Tank Need Rolls is just being a douche. (IMNSHO)

Likewise a Hunter Need Rolling on a 2H Sword with +8 Str just because it also has +6 To Hit is...okay, that's sort of understandable. Although I confess that when I saw the Hunter had Need Rolled I decided to hit Need myself, even though it probably wasn't an upgrade. And I won it, too, so take that, stupid Hunter! Almost 7 years on and Hunters still think everything is a Hunter Weapon :P So what if it turned out I was right and it wasn't really an upgrade. How was I to know how it would affect my DPS until I had it in my greedy little paws? Besides, it's a pretty cool looking sword :D

Speaking of DPS, I'm a tad miffed that there are no mid-level Target Dummies, at least none that I can find. There are lvl 1 Dummies in the Lowbie area but a level 20 demolishes them with a couple of whacks. This means aside from the Character Sheet, the only way I can verify my DPS is by actually running the same Instance twice, once with each weapon, and comparing my Recount stats after the two Runs. This also means if I want to compare Arms DPS and Fury DPS I have to put up with scrubs in PUGs telling me "2H Fury Warrior = Fail LOL".

That's why I got Recount, to verify what I suspected. That the combined +3% To Hit, +5% to ALL physical damage, and the +40% Autoattack Damage buff from the Fury Tree, more than offset the +15% 2H Dmg from the Arms Tree. Even with the two Blue 1H Maces from Shadowfang Keep it was clear that for a level 20 DPS Warrior the Cold Iron Pick is king. Which also sucks. Because it looks like a Mining Pick. That's great if you're a Dwarf, but for aesthetics (& humor value) I prefer Gnome and Tauren Warriors. So now I have a 10' tall Tauren Warrior running around clobbering things with a Mining Pick while Know-it-all Mages are telling me to Lrn2Play because I'm spec'd Fury and wielding a 2H Weapon. Never mind that it's arguably the best level 20 melee weapon in the game and that Fury at 20 pwns the crap out of Arms.

That's why I really got Recount. So I could throw that back in their face.

Hey, Mr. Know-it-all Mage, see the Damage Meter? You just got pwned by a Nub Warrior with the wrong spec wielding a fucking Mining Pick!!! How does that feel?

With nothing but Quest Rewards and Dungeon Drops I'm pulling 100dps, which doesn't sound like much but at lvl 20 I'm second only to Heirloom-equipped characters, and even then I'm giving them a run for their money.

Hey, Mr. Know-it-all Heirloom-wearing Mage, see the Damage Meter? Yeah, that's right. PWNED!!!

Yeah, "Raiding" at 20 really isn't that different from End Game. You still have to put up with people like me. Happy Hunting ;)

Further early morning adventures in downtown L.A.

This morning on my walk to the office I was greeted by four inhabitants of downtown L.A., and not one of them asked me for spare change.

I'm a little reluctant to refer to them as homeless because there's a good chance they're not; most of them probably have a home somewhere, even if it's little more than a room in a $150/week hotel. Yes, they exist, and no, you probably don't want to stay there on your next vacation, as cheap as it may seem.

Around 4th & Los Angeles I encountered a lady and a gentleman having a chat across the width of Los Angeles St. The lady was on my side of Los Angeles and walking toward me while the gentleman was crossing Los Angeles from the other side. As I approached they seemed to conclude their chat, and the lady turned, saw me, and wished me a good morning, and I returned her greeting. Unexpectedly, she did not ask me for spare change.

The gentleman had finished crossing to our side of Los Angeles, and having witnessed the brief exchange between the lady and I, while I was still about 30-feet away called out to me.

"Yo! What's up?"

"Hey! How you doin'?" I called back, then added. "Cold one this morning." (Which it was.)

He said something in return which I didn't catch but I knew meant that he hadn't quite heard or understood what I'd said. As I got closer he repeated, "Whazzat?"

"She's a cold one this morning," I said.

"Ooh yeah," he agreed.

And on I walked, again without being asked for change.

As I approached 5th St. I saw it was a hive of activity, much like last week. For some reason everyone seems to be out early on Friday morning. Maybe it's the excitement of the approaching weekend, I don't know, but at 5:30am on a Friday morning the place-to-be in downtown L.A. appears to be 5th St. and Los Angeles.

As I crossed 5th St. a large, middle-aged black woman standing on the opposite corner snarled loudly at a passerby, "What are you looking at?" Then she turned, saw me, and greeted me with a cheerful, "Morning, baby. How you doing?"

"I'm doing well, thank you," I replied. "How are you this morning?"

"I am going to make it," she said. She had such a positive outlook that I knew whatever curveballs life threw at her she would take it all in stride.

"That is really good to hear," I responded, with as much sincerity as I could muster.

Just a little further down was a young, quite stylishly dressed black man who, if the lady I'd just spoken to was a lady of the night, and I'm not saying she was, may - or may not - have been her agent. Or he may have been a gentleman of the night himself. He was quite well dressed. He had clearly overheard my conversation with the large black lady and he caught my eye and grinned at me as I approached, and then he smiled and wished me a good morning.

The incongruity of a white boy like me in that neighborhood at that time of the morning probably contributes to the warm reception I received. That I'm not just a white boy but a white boy from a small country town in rural Australia walking through downtown Los Angeles at 5:30 in the morning only serves to further enhance the absurdity of the situation.

This is not to say downtown Los Angeles is erroneously portrayed in the media and is actually a delightful place for an early morning stroll. I'm an Aussie country boy in Los Angeles. I am who I am. YMMV.

Sorry? Why are you sorry?

As part of my weight loss plan I've been walking from Union Station to the office and back each day, a distance of approximately 2 miles each way. I can walk at a decent pace so this takes me about half an hour each way. Given the route I take I'm also passing through a slightly seedier part of downtown L.A. so my morning commute frequently takes me past quite a few homeless folks, most of them are asleep but sometimes one or two are awake and getting ready to face another day in paradise.

I'm used to being asked for spare change and aren't bothered by the homeless folks, although the LOUD jumpy ones are definitely worth keeping an eye on as they're the ones who sometimes like to hit passersby.

This morning I'm pretty sure I passed a couple of drug dealers, and while I might look like a cop and sometimes be mistaken for one I think these guys were streetwise enough to realize I wasn't the real deal. Which is why one of them didn't hesitate to take something that may or may not have been drugs and/or cash out of a broken newspaper vending machine as I approached. Likewise I was savvy enough to not even look at them as I passed by but continued marching along at my pavement-eating pace. Fast, but not running. Not scared, but not acting like a bravado either.

Further down the road I saw two guys standing in a doorway, engaged in conversation. As I drew closer one of them began walking off while the body language of the second indicated he intended to talk to me. Physically he looked like your typical street dweller, but he appeared more mentally alert than the average brain-addled homeless guy. This is the kind of thing you need to be aware of if you plan to walk the streets of Los Angeles, especially at 5:30 in the morning.

I was prepared to defend myself in case he turned out to be the loud, jumpy type, or wanted more than just spare change. I was also ready to turn the guy down if he did ask me for change. What I wasn't expecting was for him to produce a block of chocolate and offer it as trade for a cigarette.

Realizing that although he had not asked for change that he was still actually begging, sort of, my mouth spat out "Sorry, man" before my brain could provide it with a more appropriate response.

And on I walked as my brain tried to process the absurdity of being offered a block of chocolate by a homeless guy in exchange for a cigarette at 5:30 in the morning on the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

Then from behind me I heard him say, "Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

Are you serious? Do I need to spell it out for you?

Apparently my mouth thought it did, and I called back to him, "I don't have any cigarettes...*pause*...sorry."

That really doesn't make that much more sense, said my brain. Why are you sorry that you don't have any cigarettes? That's not a bad thing. Even if you did, you don't want that guy's chocolate anyway.

Wisely, this time, my mouth stayed silent.

The mysteries of the Interwebs

Apparently over the past few days our IT Department switched us over to a new Proxy server because the old one was having problems, and IT are too short-staffed to troubleshoot it so they just set us up with a new Proxy server.

Except the new Proxy server is also having problems, from running slow to not working at all, and because our office uses Google's GMail, when the proxy server is down we cannot access our email. This has been causing headaches for my office's System Techs because administering the Proxy server is IT's responsibility, and they're in another office, in another building, a dozen blocks away. So when the Proxy goes down and we can't access our email, Systems can't actually do anything to get us back up. And who do we run to when our computer don't work? Systems of course, because they're right here.

Certain websites are also blocked by the new Proxy server, websites which were not blocked before. Now it makes sense to block certain websites, except they're not the sites you might think. Or maybe they are, but I'm not checking those sites.

For example, I can still get on Facebook, and...yep, MySpace is still good, too.

I can access my Yahoo email but the click-thru links in my MyPoints emails do not work because MyPoints.com has been blocked.

I can also access my blog here at Blogspot (as long as the Proxy server is up), and yet...I cannot access Tobold's Blog, which is also on Blogspot. It shows up in Google when I search for it, but any attempts to access it are denied. Very strange.

I don't believe in going on a diet

Because going on a diet implies that at some point in the future you will go off the diet, and if you go on a diet and lose weight and then go off the diet, and if nothing else has changed in your life, then the weight you lost while on your diet will most likely return. With friends.

In order to lose weight and keep it off you need to effect a lifestyle change.

Instead of going on a diet you need to change your eating habits. Instead of eating three pork tacos for lunch, you'll eat two. Or perhaps you'll eat two chicken tacos, or two fish tacos.

Instead of riding the bus to the office, given the time you'll get off several blocks early and walk the rest of the way, and in the afternoon going home you'll do the same.

And if you want to keep that weight off those are not things you'll do only until you've lost X pounds, after which you'll resume eating 3 pork tacos for lunch while riding the bus all the way to the office. If you want to keep that weight off you need to continue doing the things that helped you lose the weight in the first place. In other words, you cannot go on then go off your diet.

That said, for the past few months I have been on a diet. I make no pretenses about this. I am on a diet. I have been denying myself certain food products in order to lose weight, and once a certain date has been reached, being October 5, I will absolutely and unequivocally go off my diet. After October 5th I will have a donut from the box that occasionally appears in the office. One donut. I will sometimes order the ribs instead of the fish or salad when we eat out. And I will have those deep fried jalapenos, the crispy fried noodles, and the pork burrito, thank you very much. But not all the time.

Because once October 5th arrives my Office's weight loss competition will be over, and hopefully I will have lost a large enough percentage of my starting weight to be declared the biggest loser. That's my primary goal. To lose enough weight to win the Office weight-loss competition.

Currently I'm the front runner, as per our weigh-in last week and now there's just 3 weeks to go. I weigh approx. 175 lbs, having lost 12.2% of my starting weight of 200 lbs, I'm wearing size 32" pants (which fit well, and are not snug at all), while my body fat is approx. 15% (it used to be around 22-23%). I'm in great shape for a 42-year old guy. Knee pain & arthritis aside I'm even in better shape than when I graduated from High School. So I can honestly say that once this is all over, even if I'm not the biggest loser, I am a winner.

However, just because I'm going to go off my diet on October 5th doesn't mean I'll balloon up to my former weight of 200-210 lbs. Yes, I'll have the burgers and ribs and beer and jalapeno poppers, and all the other foods I love but which I've been denying myself these past few months. But I'll eat them in moderation. I said earlier that winning the Office weight loss competition was my primary goal. My secondary goal is to maintain (to a moderate degree) my healthier lifestyle and to continue working out. But rather than continue with the cardio I've been doing to lose all that weight, I'll be lifting weights to regain the muscle mass I know I've lost.

In 3 months I've lost 25 lbs and dropped my body fat from 23% to 15%. I'm not going back on another diet; I'm going to make changes to my eating and workout habits in order to capitalize on what I've accomplished these past few months.

I don't plan to bulk up and look like Captain America, but I still want to look good.

Correction: I'm already looking good, I want to look great.

Dead Island

I read a couple of reviews of Dead Island and it sounds interesting. I like the thought of playing it in the First Person. That definitely puts you more into the game versus playing it in the Third Person and guiding a character around. The use of Stamina, a depletable, slowly regenerating resource used for pretty much every action in the game from punching a zombie to swinging a bat to running for your life is a great way to generate suspense. Sure you can fight, but not indefinitely. Yes you can run, but you can't run forever. You need to seek refuge. You need to rest and recover your strength. Because you are only human.

I even like the character being able to gather resources and use them at various Work Benches scattered around the island to improve, enhance, and upgrade their weapons. What I don't like, is that the resource you use to upgrade your weapons is money.

Seriously? You're on a zombie-infested island with just a handful of survivors and you're "buying" weapon upgrades? Come on! There's no merchants, there's no commerce. How can you possibly spend money to upgrade your weapons? I know, I know. It's a game about zombies. It's not meant to be realistic.

I respectfully disagree with you. I say of course it's supposed to be realistic. We're supposed to become emotionally invested in this game, particularly in this specific game given the level of emotion invoked by the Trailer.



The Devs expect us to believe in this world, but for us to believe in it it needs to be realistic. Okay, somewhat realistic, given it's a world/island overrun by zombies. But even in a fantasy world where the dead can rise, walk, run, and try to eat your brains, you still could not use money to upgrade weapons unless you were paying someone to upgrade them for you. But there's nobody else involved in the upgrading process, so you cannot be paying anyone, thus money as a resource to upgrade your weapons is?

Highly illogical, Capt'n.

Thank you, Mr. Spock.

Had you been finding & accruing not Money, but Spare Parts, or Bits & Pieces, and at a Work Bench you used X number of Bits & Pieces to upgrade your weapon from Level N to Level N+1 I would have totally accepted that. It's a quite plausible, valid premise, even though nothing has changed but the name of the resource. You were using Money, now you're using Bits. That simple name change changes everything.

A wise man once (allegedly) said, "What's in a name?"

Another wise man responded (although perhaps not immediately, nor to the first man), "Names have power."

Versatile Blogger Award

Apparently I've won an Award of sorts. Or had it bestowed upon me. Same thing, sort of, although this award comes with rules for accepting it.

Like linking back to the Blogger who gave it to me, being Memphis Steve from Steve's Nude Memphis. No, he's not naked, or even a nudist, just read his Blog and you'll get it. Or not.

The second rule is to share seven things about yourself, and the third is to pass the award on to 15...FIFTEEN!!?!? recently discovered Blogs. I think I'll fail that part, but first...

1. If I like you I will deliberately insult you, and the more I like you the more I will insult you. The problem is I'm socially inept so I usually cannot tell when I've gone too far, and what should be a bit of light-hearted teasing among mates often comes across as very offensive.

2. I like to walk places. I once offended my Dad when I said I needed to go into town, he offered to give me a lift, and I said I could just walk. It was only about a half hour walk into town. No big deal, to me. Dad was pretty pissed off though. When I first came to the States I got a job in the local Mall about a mile from the in-laws home (where we lived for the first year or so after we were married...does that count as Number 3? I think so. I'm going to count it.) and the mother-in-law was visibly shocked when I told her I was going to walk to the Mall.

3. After the wife and I were married we lived with her parents for about a year. I told you I was going to count it.

4. I believe in ghosts. I believe we don't see them because we've learned how to close our minds to them, and that children whose minds are still open can still perceive them. I believe that in some cases the crazy homeless people we see having conversations or arguments with thin air are crazy but their minds are no longer closed and so they're actually talking to and arguing with ghosts.

5. (a) In High School I copied an entire book on Ned Kelly for a History assignment. This was before Referencing and Bibliographies were expected. I got an A+.
5. (b) In College, when only one of the girls in our group understood a certain assignment she let four of us rewrite her essay so we could all pass. We all made sure to write it a little differently, use our own words, etc., so the Professor wouldn't suspect us of copying. When we got our grades back the girl whose assignment we copied from got a B, and everyone else got a C, except for me. I got an A. Sometimes cheaters do prosper.

6. Back in High School, I was reading the winning entries for a State-wide short story competition when I came across a very familiar story about a boy and his new bike. At home that afternoon I searched through numerous editions of Reader's Digest until I found the issue with the story about a boy and his new bike. The next day I showed my English Teacher the winning short story, along with the corresponding Reader's Digest. A few weeks later my English Teacher told me that he had learned that the student had been ordered to return his prize. I don't remember what it was. Probably money.

7. I have a genius-level IQ, which doesn't really mean anything other than I'm very good at solving logical puzzles. I do very well in maths-based tests, but anything requiring critical thinking, reading comprehension, etc., I usually fail with flying colors.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Or not. My nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award. Of which there most assuredly will not be 15.

1. 6 Inch Move is a Blog written by several table-top wargaming friends. I think this counts for as many extra Blogs as I need to make up my 15 :P

2. The Food In My Beard is, obviously enough, a food Blog. It's written by a guy who loves to cook for himself and his friends, and he appears to be pretty damn good at it, too. Features lots of delicious photos. Do not read while hungry.

3. Carrying A Cat By The Tail stars Spuds, a self-proclaimed "cool guy". If he actually says and does even half the stuff he says and does (and I have no reason to believe that he does not) then he is, indeed, a very cool dude.

4. A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings is written by an Aussie girl who moved from Melbourne to Canberra for work, before regaining her senses and moving back to Melbourne. That's Melbourne, Australia, not Melbourne, Florida.

The following Blogs have been classified by Blogger as Adults-only. Whatever that means.

5. Perception is Everything is written by KittyCat and is probably one of my most favorite, newly discovered Blogs.

6. Fun and Dirty Thoughts is written by a pretty hot guy named Marcus who still seems to have trouble charming the pants off his wife.

7. GoodWill (Bad Will) is written by Good Will, but sometimes he's Bad Will, and as the saying goes, when he's good he is very, very good, but when he's bad he's even better ;)

That's all, folks.