Totally off-topic

I felt we were in need of some off-topic, off-color humor round here (in the blogosphere) so I decided to share something funny I found today. It is this website: http://rinkworks.com/said/courtroom.shtml

and an example of the timeless wisdom this provides us?

• Lawyer: "Could you see him from where you were standing?"
• Witness: "I could see his head."
• Lawyer: "And where was his head?"
• Witness: "Just above his shoulders."

• Lawyer: "This myasthenia gravis -- does it affect your memory at all?"
• Witness: "Yes."
• Lawyer: "And in what ways does it affect your memory?"
• Witness: "I forget."
• Lawyer: "You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?"

Tyrranical Reign at an End

Finally put up a new blog header, thereby ending my tyrranical reign as LORD ANTON.

What fond memories I will have of crushing the innocent. But now that I'm here to be a good guy again, I will look forward to times fit for heroism and honour!

The new header represents the main characters of the game Thallian and I will be not only creating...But taking the lead roles in!

I cut back significantly on the original game design to make it a feasable 2-man project. I'd still give it at least a year to complete, since I need to build about 15 3d character models... Many of the game mechanics have been determined, the main characters are developed, and some plot elements are written in script format. Here we go!

Incidentally, I wonder if Thallian (and the rest of you all) think it's a good idea to post everything about the game as it is being developed, or if we should just stay quiet and surprise everyone?

Wii Sports Resort releases with Wii plus add-on

This is prolly a no-brainer buy for the casual game playing type-peoples of the world, just like Wiiplay was. Wii sports resort released today with the Wii plus add-on. One thing to consider though is that the Wii plus add on is also bundled with several other products including Tiger Woods and a few others coming out shortly so if you are buying a game soon, look around and think before doing it. Of course you might want more than one wii plus add-on. I think I'd want two at least. There's a good early review of it here.

In Other Random News

You prolly already heard that Michael Jackson bit the big one, but in other news, Iron Man style fusion reactors are actually a possibility. And the Navy wants one. (who can blame them, really?) Read here from Tim's blog: http://timsthoughtfulspot.blogspot.com/2009/06/holy-wiffleball-batman.html

Advantages of playing D&D online versus at home

I'm still playing Neverwinter Nights on Arelith server, here's a great quote from the forums:

"ARELITH: For when you like D&D, but you just don't want those people in your house."

--Coldend from Arelith Forums
http://arelith.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2160&p=21573&hilit=t+shirt#p21573

Brilliantly said, Coldend.

In actuality, I'd say the true advantage is ease of grouping with other players of a similar interest, a graphical and rules interface, and a way of storing up a world without a huge binder of loose pages.

Full Disclosure

Just in case the Federal Trade Commission comes around to check, I want to publicly disclose that we haven't earned a cent from this blog, we don't intend to except as free adversiting for the game we're making, but we really enjoy writing it (the blog I mean, silly). Anton is feverishly working on a number of surprises for me (and you of course) but I won't say what they are yet. Soon(tm), very soon we will start our indie game development again (I hope, I'm still waiting for art) If not its ok cuz I will just continue to keep providing my insight (or lack thereof) into the games I play, as will he.
Cheers! -Thallian & Anton

Book 8 launching June 23rd

So Book 8 launches on June 23rd. Here's the release notes. Something to look forward to? the two lvl 60 three man puzzleish instances (hall of mirrors and waterworks one) and one lvl 60 6 man instance. Last but not least? the evil raid of doom. Though I think the three man instances give you radiance gear for a unique three item set so you can sorta get ready that way, though you'll probably be ill prepared, at least you wont be in perma-cower mode. Other exciting news? they are adding some new crafting challenges and stuff and revamping the rest of the newbie areas so if you go and do the game over with a friend you're going to find a lot of nice surprises and new experiences.

Bing! bong! The witch is dead!

So Microsoft launched a new web search hub called Bing! cuz they were jealous of Google and let me say, for the most part its inferio to what is offered but it does have its gems. I hate to praise Microsoft at all lately because of Vista and the grief it's given me but they are coming out with some nice things like Windows 7 and Bing maps is one of them. Granted its not a satellite view,(I think) but it looks like aerial photography judging by the angle and the detail, still its nice to get to see areas from a different view so make sure you go to Bing! too and try their maps out. Make sure to try a few areas and settings. It defintely beat yahoo maps ion this regard, which is pretty impressive for an at-launch condition of a product.

On the other hand their news section is pretty poor, it returned no results when I searched for 'lotro'. Nuff said :P Their normal search is decent, though not amazing or anything. Their image search returns a facebook like experience. Worth exploring, but nothing really really amazing.
I'm glad though if they can provide competition for google in its key areas so that it will feel pushed to improve. It's not perfect after all.

Here's a sample of my results when looking at a vacation locale for this weekend for father's day. Happy Father's day to the proud daddy gamers out there btw, including you Anton.

Another Night of Neverwinter: Mark of Destiny

Arelith has been my gaming home for the last 2 months. At character creation, you are given an option called "Mark of Destiny". It has two effects. One is, a 20xp bonus every 6 minutes of play. The second, is a 10-life limit to perma-death.

Since I opted for the Mark of Destiny on my character, I will tell you there are still 7 lives left, but the most interesting thing is the way this changes encounters. I have learned to do the following: 1) always adventure with groups. 2) Do not go into areas that are overly dangerous. 3) Be ready to flee a difficult encounter. 4) Be very cautious about traps.

Last night, we encountered 2 Sewer Golems. This is a foe I had never before seen. I watched 2 companions die in the fight, but we had the largest group (6 players) I had ever been with. During that part of the struggle, my heart was pounding so hard. The question in my mind during a difficult fight is simply: Is it time to run yet?

In World of Warcraft, I rarely considered fleeing. If we died, we would just flee back to our bodies then. This gameplay aspect makes every encounter much more exhilarating. Eventually, I'll hit the 10-death limit and be forced to start a new character, but in the meantime, my current character is going through a lot of very real fears. Highly recommended.

China gets Lotro soon (tm)

http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=150003_0_5_0_M

Third quarter of 2009 China is getting Lotro.

Why is this interesting to you? Well, its like the second western MMO after WoW that will launch in China (other than random small FTP ones). This will boost their revenues at Turbine even higher. It already launched in Korea a year or two ago and that has pressured them to do a better job at PVP (thank heavens). They need to add battlegrounds or something. Although the Ettenmooors is fun because anyone can show up, it is also never quite as much fun as warsong gulch or Arathi basin or Alterac Valley were, unless there are hordes and hordes of people in there, in which case it becomes a very unique experience with armies of wargs ready to pounce and people defending keeps. But "usually" its just a group agianst another lately and that gets old fast without objectives of some kind other than "hide", "pick off the sick ones", "kill some more".

In other news, I get my internet at home back tomorrow morning, so you can expect more gaming news from me than you've been getting. I'm actually getting it installed instead of umm borrowing the neighbor's spotty internet. Moving into a new place always has its fun little adventures.

Dungeons and Dragons Online is going FTP

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23974

Dungeons and Dragons Online is going to be Free to Play. What does this mean for me? It means I'm gonna play it for the first time. That's what. Maybe I can get my brothers to play with me too.

What I'm doing, in case you wondered

So Anton has been doing 3D art and goofing in Neverwinter Nights. Meanwhile I have been unpacking wedding stuff and trying to get my life sorted out to some semblance of normal. Been doing "thank you's" and all kinds of other stuff too. Did go to an opera ("Tosca") in AT&TPark for free, was my first opera ever. I have to say it was kinda.. silly? Fun but the plot was very silly. If you get a chance to see it you should though, Pucini's operas are not boring I hear/read. The heroine does some unusual things though and there are certainly some surprising plot twists. Fun stuff.

In other news, Bildo showed me this neat thing called Stumble upon and I've been playing with it. Its an add on for the browser and I normally loathe those but thsi one takes you to random cool webpages you wiouldbn't otehrwise discover so its neat and fun to use when bored at work. Give it a whirl! http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Tianmen from a more sensible perspective

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/answering-your-china-questions/

The new york times just sent out this article. If you have any interest in Asia's politics or future at all I suggest you read it, you might learn something resembling fact more than what you have learned from other sources. This is not hearsay, its from an individual who was there during protests and other controversial events and he doesn't mince words or blow things up out of proportion.

Possible Applications for Natal

Of course, video games have been a mass market mass-driver gun for technology to expand and reach affordable levels for years and years, so it must needs be that all neat technology that we could have figured out years ago has to have some kind of video game tie in AND be decently successful before it becomes cheaper, but after Natal and the things that follow it become cheaper, what do you guys think are some of the possible future uses for this technology?

My boss really got me thinking about this because he was so hyped about hacking it and using it as a virtual butler by tying it to the virtual remote in his home. You could just talk, wave your arms, do some motion or other and things would happen. Look out George Jetson, here we come! But other than that I see a lot of application for meetings because you could all meet as holograms with the data picked up by this thing, or for "virtual sports competitions" perhaps. Ideas? Anyone for virtual dodgeball?

Final Fantasy 4, the after years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_IV:_The_After_Years

so I hope Anton can get a screenshot in here from his Wii, (pretty please, lol I know he hasn't bought it yet) but anyways this game was awesome back in the day and its been improved and its on Wiiware now. I soo want to buy it but my Wii is at my familiy's home so I'm gonna have to wait. That won't stop me from letting you all know though. Cheers :) p.s. this is NOT a FF4 remake, its a sequel, and its got a new plot and enw characters to boot. FF4 remake would be ok, like the DS one, but this is neat.

Why the Hush in the Blogosphere/news?

Why has all the buzz died off so suddenly? Oh... yeah, E3 starts tomorrow. Silly me. I didn't even realize it till I looked it up just now. Half the bloggers and news people are probably over there right now having a gay old time. Can't wait to see their reviews.

Neverwinter Nights: Arelith

About a month ago, I decided to try some Subscription Free online role-play via Neverwinter Nights. I discovered Arelith (www.arelith.com), a persistent world role-play server.

The people in Arelith have an incredible community and sense of role-play. On Saturday night, I played for four hours, completely enjoyed myself, and I think I only dealt a single blow of combat.

Instead, I walked to a bench, triggered a trap, and suddenly became an innocent bystander in an attempted murder by an elven woman with a vendetta against a certain city councilman's secretary. She was soon banished by the city Guard Captain for 3 months (which is about 5 days, 2 RL hours = 1 game day). Then I met a man who, upon learning I am a Paladin seeking to serve my community, recommended I join the City Guard. But before that, I had to confess having accepted a bribe during last week's city council election. Which I was told was perfectly normal in an election. Then upon joining the guard, I was told how to treat my officers in a military fashion, and taken to a dressing room to put on a guard uniform, and as we were about to do a town-patrol together, someone ran up to the Sergeant yelling that there had been a murder.

So in new recruit fashion, I was sent across town to keep an eye on the front gate for the perpetrator, who was subsequently confronted by many officials and bystanders and taken to the guards' office for questioning and a little trial. Then the City High Councilman sent me to fetch a witness.

Good role-play if you ask me! I think I shall be on Arelith for a long long time...