Freedom Ain't Free Folks

Kind of in commemoration of the Fourth of July and the price our fore fathers and my grandfather paid (landed on D-day and marched all over France) in the many wars to keep this nation free, I'd like to post a reminder to all y'all to say thank you to God or just plain be grateful if your confused on that subject for all the many freedoms we now enjoy. Please realize that nothing is really free and its important to remember the price paid for things in order to really appreciate them.
Some things are worth dying for.. video games not being one of them, and free speech is one of those things because if you lose free speech you lose freedom to check and balance "the Man" and shortly thereafter you end up living in China. Or rather your own version of it.

Here is an article about the perils the freedom of blogging is facing and what it might mean to us: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/technology/blog.php

Also here is a good blog about virtual laws being implemented and their repercussions by a very savvy lawyer: Virtually Blind | Virtual Law | Legal Issues in Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games

Demos.. good or bad?

Do you guys think demos are good or a bad thing? Every gamer worth his sauce will usually just spit out (without thinking) that they are good. For him/her. But think about the question as a general one for the industry as well as the consumer and read this intriguing interview with the creators of Pop on WiiWare for some insights into how Nintendo and Microsoft interact with their potential content producers.

Personally I want to give my opinionated ten cents worth on this so here it is: Demos are good for saving money as a consumer and bad for development, innovation, and making a sale. What would work better is trailers and detailed descriptions of what I can find in a game, plus positive word of mouth from friends who own it. And I definitely agree that none of the big three has a good system to help you wade through the crapware and find the good cookieware. Speaking of cookies.. I have places to be...

Just Keeping you guys (and gals) up to speed

Steefel finally told what the two new classes do in the Lotro expansion. Here's the news on that.

And they also told a ton of stuff about what the book releasing soon is like and Moria as it stands under development here. Enjoy :)

..p.s. Here's one on book 14 http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=174167

p.p.s. Here's why I'm so freaking excited for it: http://www.lotro.com/article/562
if you read any of these read this last one though they are all good.

News Flash

Crystal Chronicles has added some new down loadable content, for those of you addicted to it like my family.

http://purenintendo.com/2008/07/04/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-king-new-content-now-available-for-download/

Second, Spogs racing has launched on wii ware and I was considering buying it. It involves crashing your car into other ones and stealing their spare parts to upgrade, kinda reminds me of blast works. Anyways Its a racing game and I thought it might be good but the 1.9/10 review from ign and other sources kinda leads me to believe I shouldn't waste my money.... It must fart in your face or something to earn a 1.9. wow.

Where we're at

Just a quick couple of totally unimpressive pics to show how I'm reading in blocks from a file that looks like this: GGWSSG...blah blah blah 2 3 4 2 1
It reads in which terrain type to use and then what height to make it. I am going to reduce the blocks to half size so we can make more believable gradients and also make water tiles not have dirt on the sides. Last I'm gonna add some more tile types like rounded and different texture types like floor tile and stone and lava and carpet and stuff. Oh and I need to get rid of the borders maybe in the underground ones though I kinda like the borders cuz they show you tactically where everything is. Maybe as a polishing feature I'll make them toggleable.

Book 14 live on Roheryn!

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=146974

Click there to read the full info. Book 14 is now live on Roheryn. What does that mean? Its in beta testing so it will be live in a couple weeks on all servers. Probably. And we can all run down the the Hollin gate and bang on the front door of Moria until our ponies get pulled into the water by a tentacled beast and devoured, just like poor old Bill.

I personally cant wait to see the ring-forge. And a new area that isn't covered in snow.... (have I mentioned that I hate snow in rl?)

another list is here: http://www.lotro-europe.com/newspage.php?search=yes&keyword=&id=1927

Wii Fit article

A "Fiona King"(.. is that your real name..?) has contacted me with an article she posted. I once had a number of anonymous callers, prolly tax collectors or the FBI call my apartment constantly for a Phoenix Goldenfire.. turns out it was HER real name! I still wonder what they were after her for, they didn't seem to believe she wasn't living in an all boys apartment. Can you believe it? Anyways life's full of surprises.
And anyways here's one from Fiona's nurses:

Hi Thallian,

We just posted an article, "Using Wii Fit in Your Longterm Fitness Plan: 40+ Tips, Tutorials and Success Stories" (Article link removed at owners request) I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.

Either way, thanks for your time!

Fiona King

I didn't see anything terribly objectionable so if your interested in Wii fit go ahead and read :) -Thall