Aherm. Well, it explains itself really.

Star Trek. Get some.

A Pause in the MMO Action

There's a note on the Escapist which deserves your attention, if you want, relevant to the MMO space. In and of itself what the note says is not so important. It's what it means that I would suggest you notice.

The scoop looks like the Conan MMO is being delayed again. That is not so unusual. Put that on the shelf next to "Lord of the Rings online fails to totally pwn WoW" and "Star Trek online Canceled" and you might see a trend. Set that next to "Lord British fails to recapture glory with new MMO", and I'm beginning to have what my junior-high shops teacher called a mental working picture.

And that picture is one where the MMO space is dominated by a game that is almost 5 years old on the tech band. Yes I know it's only been publicly playable for just over 3 years. You need to remember that the engine doesn't really change after about 2/3 of the way into beta unless something has really gone wrong. What does it mean? I think it means if you want into the MMO space, you better have a very fat cheque book and some blackmail information on the Board of Directors to convince them to sell you WoW. Then you shut WoW down. Then you release your game.

I might be wrong. Have they announced another delay in Warhammer Online yet?

Guitar Hero ...

Live from the living room. And admittedly only hitting about 12% of the notes (which means together we can almost make it through a song, as long as I play PERFECTLY).

Zero Punctuation

I keep forgetting to mention how I am a really huge fan of Yahtzee and his weekly video reviews. They are honest, to the point and very, very funny. All three things some what lacking in Game reviews lately. It is however very offensive, so if you're weak in the knees, at work or somehow offended by hats, take a pass. Otherwise:

NSFW - but it's soooo funny... (Team Fortress 2 Machinima)

I'm all big on the Steam, and the Valve and the Team Fortress 2. I've been playing with The Geef's regular group since before Christmas. Now this here is not typical of either the way we play (where I mostly get pwned) or my WAJ, but man is it funny.

Hellgate: London - Out of the Box

Ok , it's a Diablo clone. But it's a high fidelity clone, and that's all that really matters. It caters to two key game mechanics - kill monsters, get better loot. It has classes and skills, and even a pseudo MMO mode, but that's not what it's about. Kill monsters, get better loot.

This key formula can keep me enthralled for months.

Yes the concept is a somewhat interesting post apocalypse. Demons have invaded. From hell. It's not as ridiculous if you say aliens from another dimension? Any ways, I haven't played through the campaign so I won't give my full comments yet. I also haven't tried all three character types fully, so I'll reserve on that as well. But if you have a machine that can run it, and it's fully Larry compatible by the way, it's got shed loads of style. An loot. Lots of loot.

Cool to try

If you have some free time (about half an hour or so), you should try this. The Penny Arcade guys have been putting together a Podcast of the comic creation. The one I just listened to is pretty funny, If you're on the Gabe/Tycho wavelength. But whats really cool is they actually hammer out the comic on the podcast. So I listened to the 'cast with the comic in question in view. And you can sense the design coming together.

Ok, it appeals to the wannabe in me.
This comic and this podcast are what you need to try it.

Go.

(Oh, uncharacteristic so NSFW, btw.)

(Non) Interactive Fiction

You have entered a room. There are two obvious exits, one north and one south. This room has no distinguishing features.

>examine room

This room has no distinguishing features.

>n

Sitting Room

You have entered a Sitting Room. That is to say the room itself is intended for sitting, not that the room has somehow, in an anthropomorphic way, managed to sit down. The room features a fireplace, a chesterfield, a chair, a coffee table (lacking coffee). A small stack of what appear to be Gardening Magazines lies on the table. There is a doorway leading south. There are picture windows on the north and east walls. The room is lit by the windows only. You notice a fine layer of dust on everything.

>examine table

Sitting Room - Examining the Table
The table is simple coffee table, constructed of wood. It's age is difficult to determine. There is a stack of Gardening Magazines on the table. The table appears to have a fine layer of dust on it, which would seem to indicate that it has not be disturbed for some time.

>take magazines

Sitting Room - taking the stack of Gardening Magazines
After a few attempts you determine that the stack of Gardening Magazines will not fit in your pocket. You re stack them on the coffee table. The dust on the coffee table is slightly disturbed.

>examine dust

Sitting Room - examining dust
The dust seems to be disturbed. But not in a bad way. In fact it's calmed down quite a bit now.

>examine fireplace

Sitting Room - examining fireplace
The fireplace is empty, if somewhat sooty. You note a distinct lack of logs, kindling or other materials to burn. And don't even think about the magazines.

Metrics

I really wish Blogger gave metrics. It actually makes me crazy that I have no idea if anyone reads my blog. Well, I know there are people who read it regularly. But they're mostly in the room, as it were.

On the other hand, the one metric I have access to actually causes alarm. 333 hits on my profile. Less the about 20 times I've viewed it to look at what I put there, usually after changing it, and I've got about 313 hits. That's about 310 more than I would have expected.

Using a fuzzy derivation of logic, I can extend that to mean a whole whack more people have been here than I expected. Or one of you has become horribly obsessed with the terrible picture of me, but can't work out how to "right click and save". I'm going with the former, honestly I'm too terrified to consider the latter. I guess that based on the idea that only a fraction of people reading posts click on the profile link.

I also wish I knew how to impose more control on the template. I really would like to jazz the place up with a more unique font, for example.

Yes this is related to the upcoming anniversary post. I will have a better sum of the year at that time. Until then, WAJ on my friends, WAJ on.