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.)
Monday, January 07, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
(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.
>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.
Friday, January 04, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Mashup
This here is what I call a mashup post. That's a post where I have about 4 things I been meaning to write down, but keep putting off, because I'm a lazy git, so I'm finally incentivised to post, but I'm going to cheap out and post them all as part of one incoherent mess. That's not helping.
Real Blogs - Apparently, the fellow who coined the term "blog" thinks what I got here is not. A blog that is. I apologize, as I can not think of his name, nor be bothered to suss it out, but there was a brief article about him and his 10 pointers for new bloggers (hence my interest as I consider myself new to the field). His original concept however, was that a blog would be a Web Log of links you have visited. Which seems both pointless and boring to me. Admittedly, I do on a number of occasions include interesting foot note style links to supplement my thoughts, that's not really what he meant. He also suggests that if your posts are mostly "you" content that you should reconsider as most people will not find you as interesting as you do.
And my thought on that was "but they'd much rather go read stuff I read, eh?". So, out of respect, this is not a blog. It's a web accessible journal. WAJ for short. Say it with a long A. Waaa-j. I'm sure that will catch on.
World of Bloody Consuming my Free Time Warcraft - Bugger. That's probably all I should say there, but I won't because I'm in full WAJ mode now. I have fallen right back in. And why? VOIP, Voice Over IP for the less savvy. WoW is, as I've probably mentioned, not the best CRPG. Taken for just the single player experience, it's a poor almalgum of Action RPG and Classic RPG. Note quite enough plot and story to be a full on RPG, but too much class interdependency and time lapse combat makes it not quite an action RPG (Diablo). No it's all about the MMO part. And when you can actually chat with the people you're playing with, and maintaining HOTAS, that's almost like D&D.
Well, without the funky smelling room in your parents basement. Actually, I haven't been to your basement. Maybe your experience is just like D&D.
Warhammer - While at the annual family holiday get on, one of my cousins mentioned he was thinking about getting into the table top racket. Said he had been playing a take over the world game with his friends, but they were getting bored with it so thought they would try WH.
"You know the game, the one with the world?" He asked.
"Oh, Axis & Allies?" I asked.
"Uh, no. It has the dice and the pieces" He replied.
I gave one of those sideways looks I reserve for people who I think are obviously trying to mock me. And then, recognizing the source for what it was I deduced the answer. "You mean Risk."
"Ya! That's it!" I tried to stay encouraging after that, knowing full well that unless I devoted some serious coaching, my cousin was going to get lost in the gap. We actually discussed this briefly. I'm not sure there is a mid way step between Risk and actual strategy games. And certainly not much of a bridge between this and table top war games. I gave him the usual warnings about cost and time, something a game like WH demands a great deal of. I briefly considered sending him a set of alternate rules for the pieces of Risk. I think I may buy him a copy of Settlers of Cattan.
What you could do, to take Risk to the next level, and yet probably not change it so much that anyone who played before didn't understand, is make a supply change and a combat change. The supply rules for Risk are messed up. Ignore the cards, or at least use them limitedly. Like they always represent 21 points when cashed in. The new sets have three kinds of pieces (at least, the last set I bought did) intended to represent 1, 5 and 10 armies. Forget that, it's dumb (simplistic is what I mean, but I want to be inflammatory). If you're going to play like that you may as well invest in a set of stock six sided dice and roll them for an hour or two. Whoever rolls the most 6s wins.
The infantry units are 1 unit of infantry and they work just like you're used to. Each one you commit to battle is a d6 for you to roll and they cost 1 point for you to buy. They're the least expensive and have the best all around chance in combat.
The cavalry units are 1 unit of cavalry. They cost 2 points each, but they roll a d8 when attacking someone else's country. When some one attacks your cavalry they roll a d6, like infantry. If it's your turn your cavalry roll d8, if its not your turn they roll d6 is probably the easiest way to see it.
The cannon units are 1 battery of artillery. They cost 2 points each, and only roll a d4 when they are attacking. However, artillery is a support piece. If the artillery piece is not alone then each of your die receives a +1. Artillery by itself, not so effective. Artillery used as part of combined arms...
Leave everything else the same. Instead of the numbers for sets and normal supply and continent bonus being ARMIES, they are points you spend on Infantry or Cavalry or Artillery.
I really need to try that out.
World in Conflict - When I can get out from under the thumb of the gorilla, this game rocks. I also gave the single player demo of Crysis a shot, in spite of being disappointed with the multi player beta, and have to say I did it a disservice. I will be picking it up. I also have a taste for Hellgate London, but that's lower on my list. I have the demo of Call of Duty 4 for the PC, but need to evade the gorilla to get it installed. I did get Guitar Hero III for the 360, but as my 360 is being monopolized for watching House, MD just now, I'm not getting to use it much.
Real Blogs - Apparently, the fellow who coined the term "blog" thinks what I got here is not. A blog that is. I apologize, as I can not think of his name, nor be bothered to suss it out, but there was a brief article about him and his 10 pointers for new bloggers (hence my interest as I consider myself new to the field). His original concept however, was that a blog would be a Web Log of links you have visited. Which seems both pointless and boring to me. Admittedly, I do on a number of occasions include interesting foot note style links to supplement my thoughts, that's not really what he meant. He also suggests that if your posts are mostly "you" content that you should reconsider as most people will not find you as interesting as you do.
And my thought on that was "but they'd much rather go read stuff I read, eh?". So, out of respect, this is not a blog. It's a web accessible journal. WAJ for short. Say it with a long A. Waaa-j. I'm sure that will catch on.
World of Bloody Consuming my Free Time Warcraft - Bugger. That's probably all I should say there, but I won't because I'm in full WAJ mode now. I have fallen right back in. And why? VOIP, Voice Over IP for the less savvy. WoW is, as I've probably mentioned, not the best CRPG. Taken for just the single player experience, it's a poor almalgum of Action RPG and Classic RPG. Note quite enough plot and story to be a full on RPG, but too much class interdependency and time lapse combat makes it not quite an action RPG (Diablo). No it's all about the MMO part. And when you can actually chat with the people you're playing with, and maintaining HOTAS, that's almost like D&D.
Well, without the funky smelling room in your parents basement. Actually, I haven't been to your basement. Maybe your experience is just like D&D.
Warhammer - While at the annual family holiday get on, one of my cousins mentioned he was thinking about getting into the table top racket. Said he had been playing a take over the world game with his friends, but they were getting bored with it so thought they would try WH.
"You know the game, the one with the world?" He asked.
"Oh, Axis & Allies?" I asked.
"Uh, no. It has the dice and the pieces" He replied.
I gave one of those sideways looks I reserve for people who I think are obviously trying to mock me. And then, recognizing the source for what it was I deduced the answer. "You mean Risk."
"Ya! That's it!" I tried to stay encouraging after that, knowing full well that unless I devoted some serious coaching, my cousin was going to get lost in the gap. We actually discussed this briefly. I'm not sure there is a mid way step between Risk and actual strategy games. And certainly not much of a bridge between this and table top war games. I gave him the usual warnings about cost and time, something a game like WH demands a great deal of. I briefly considered sending him a set of alternate rules for the pieces of Risk. I think I may buy him a copy of Settlers of Cattan.
What you could do, to take Risk to the next level, and yet probably not change it so much that anyone who played before didn't understand, is make a supply change and a combat change. The supply rules for Risk are messed up. Ignore the cards, or at least use them limitedly. Like they always represent 21 points when cashed in. The new sets have three kinds of pieces (at least, the last set I bought did) intended to represent 1, 5 and 10 armies. Forget that, it's dumb (simplistic is what I mean, but I want to be inflammatory). If you're going to play like that you may as well invest in a set of stock six sided dice and roll them for an hour or two. Whoever rolls the most 6s wins.
The infantry units are 1 unit of infantry and they work just like you're used to. Each one you commit to battle is a d6 for you to roll and they cost 1 point for you to buy. They're the least expensive and have the best all around chance in combat.
The cavalry units are 1 unit of cavalry. They cost 2 points each, but they roll a d8 when attacking someone else's country. When some one attacks your cavalry they roll a d6, like infantry. If it's your turn your cavalry roll d8, if its not your turn they roll d6 is probably the easiest way to see it.
The cannon units are 1 battery of artillery. They cost 2 points each, and only roll a d4 when they are attacking. However, artillery is a support piece. If the artillery piece is not alone then each of your die receives a +1. Artillery by itself, not so effective. Artillery used as part of combined arms...
Leave everything else the same. Instead of the numbers for sets and normal supply and continent bonus being ARMIES, they are points you spend on Infantry or Cavalry or Artillery.
I really need to try that out.
World in Conflict - When I can get out from under the thumb of the gorilla, this game rocks. I also gave the single player demo of Crysis a shot, in spite of being disappointed with the multi player beta, and have to say I did it a disservice. I will be picking it up. I also have a taste for Hellgate London, but that's lower on my list. I have the demo of Call of Duty 4 for the PC, but need to evade the gorilla to get it installed. I did get Guitar Hero III for the 360, but as my 360 is being monopolized for watching House, MD just now, I'm not getting to use it much.
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