Forum Zombie

Bring On The Humor

2008-05-27T09:32:00.002-05:00

I found a couple more webcomics I like. Irregular Webcomic! uses Legos with alot of great nerd humor and puns. Head Trip is just silly with the dark humor I love.

Spin That Disk, Jockey Boy

2008-05-24T08:47:00.001-05:00

Manly Men Do Manly Things

2008-05-21T14:32:00.000-05:00

Manly.

Update and Whatnot

2008-05-17T07:46:00.003-05:00

I should probably be posting more. I've been too busy to write about what I've been meaning to. Let's go down the list then.

After a fair amount of console games I'm checking out WoW again (it's crack I tell you). I'd never really explored the Alliance's side so I felt like I was missing out. What surprised me the most was when I cam back after upgrading a computer. I was using some quality settings and was amazed at how different things looked. I did not know how much bloom effect could be used to remind me of Twilight Princess. I'll see if I can show pics in a future post.

Classes are over for the semester, so that means I'm not doing more drawings. Still thinking about posting more of my work. Speaking of art, I found another artist with a design I liked. Here's the linky.

Tax man's check came in. I figured I'd take the opportunity to pick up a few things I've been eyeing for a bit. In particular, I picked up Portal (about time) and a couple Richard Cheese albums. After listening to Cheese for the better part of a few days now I have the urge to get a leisure suit.

I may as well slap on a corny video too.

The Fantastic Fe

2008-05-10T18:54:00.003-05:00

I just got back from watching the Iron Man movie. I must say I was rather indifferent to see it given the less than shining examples of superhero cinema I've seen (whiny Spiderman, boring Hulk). In a delightful twist they managed to give me hope for this flick.

They bribed me, they bribed me good.

The opening scene's song was Back in Black by AC/DC.

That's all I needed.

The entire movie is filled with rocking out. We're talking rocking out classics. There was no iota of musical haunting from the weepy "oh pity me and the world" Spiderman days that I was worried would be in this film. Nosiree. It's a manly movie about manly men doing manly things. Why, it's sheer manliness will go down in the annals of Man History as the introduction.

Music aside, the story is great. Great pacing, good humor, and the best Stan Lee cameo I've seen so far (sunglasses, mustache, and cigar can't miss him). Even better, the fun scene at the end of the credits. No spoilers, you'll have to see it for yourself.

If you're anything like me you'll like this movie. Then again if there's more people like me then we're all in trouble.

Rocking Out to Ukeleles

2008-05-05T19:46:00.000-05:00

You read right.

Rock Out

2008-05-02T18:05:00.002-05:00

I found the best radio commercial I've heard in quite some time. This is right up there with the "Real Men of Genius" ads on my list of good humor. I tried to find a direct link to the ad, but no avail. Therefore we'll settle for the next best thing.

Go to this site, scroll down to the "Radio" section, and play the audio for "Metal Surgeon".

The Undersea Railroad?

2008-04-29T09:58:00.002-05:00

I haven't really played WoW for some time now. In fact I haven't even logged in to see the 2.4 patch. I did get to hear about some of the dailies from people who do play. Apparently one of the dailies needed you to free the murloc slaves.

It was when I heard that I felt morally conflicted.

From my knowledge, murlocs were the bane of a WoW player's existence. The annoying war cry, the constant need to bring every other murloc in a 5 mile radius just because you sneezed too loudly, and even a particular CM from way back who had a murloc forum avatar. For all I knew it was poetic justice that murlocs become the slaves of naga. This of course made me very confused.

At this point I realized that it would amuse me to see MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech done by a murloc in the garbled murloc sounds. Even stranger was the connection to Mr. King and murlocs themselves. Take the phonetic sound of murloc and take away some letters. Mur-Lo-K. That's a little weird and I'm sure that certifies me as a conspiracy theorist.

Now that I'm done with the weirdness I think I should go and get some fresh air. This is odd even for me.

Should Gaming Future Be Multiplayer?

2008-04-24T12:43:00.002-05:00

I was reading this article the other day and I started wondering about the state of gaming. If you look around, you'll see games making a shift into the online multiplayer medium. We've got MMOs, Internet games such as Web 2.0 and Whirled, and even services on consoles for multiplayer (Xbox Live). If this keeps up, what are we looking at in the next 5-10 years? Will single player games go the way of the dodo?

It's a phenomenon really. A MMO is a game you play where you essentially go on forever. It's a very time consuming game where the only "Game Over" point is determined by the player themselves. At some point you come to the realization that you're living a second life of sorts, and that's your reality. You will be living and working in the game just as you would in real life, albeit for marginally different goals. The fascinating part about this alternate lifestyle in a digital world is that thanks to big titles like WoW, LoTRO, and EQ we're getting more developers going in for the MMO scene.

For a very long time now most of my gaming was spent in MMOs like WoW or some other online such as Puzzle Pirates. At a certain point you're stuck needing to work with other players, and I've already given my opinion on that. It's been a couple months since I've seriously played any of those games. In the recent days I've gone back to my roots and started replaying all those old single player games I played as a kid. Believe it or not, but I was having genuine fun.

Yes, I said it. Fun. Sure I was still mucking about raging mass murder on anything that so much as sneezed, but it was entertaining. I had a story that was going somewhere instead of some insignificant text in a quest log. I had characters I could play and get into instead of some nameless vagabond who has no real impact on much of anything. When I beat the baddest bugger around I didn't have to go back and beat him senseless week after week until I left him a broken man. I picked up another of my old games and followed a new story. It's a very strange concept I can't believe I had forgotten from playing MMOs.

So that's what worries me. I see more games coming out for the high school cafeteria style of play rather than the intimate candlelit dinner under the stars style I grew up playing.

Huzzah!

2008-04-21T16:07:00.002-05:00

Inktank is back! For those who don't know, Inktank was the site where I found the wonderful Angst Technology webcomic.

What are you waiting for? Go read some funny.

If Shaft Were A Chicken...

2008-04-17T05:44:00.001-05:00

He'd be one baaaaad mother clucker.

Shut yo' mouth!

I'm just talking about Shaft.

The Best And Worst Thing About The Internet

2008-04-15T12:31:00.003-05:00

People.

I'm going to start off from that very special quote in the linked article.

"The best thing about MMOs is that you can play with other people.

The worst thing about MMOs is that you have to play with other people."

This is true. I've played online since 2004 and this is a good summation of the MMO spectrum. Let's see if I can explain.

I was once a officer in a WoW raiding guild. I wound up raiding the entry level dungeon for about a year or so before my group actually cleared it. For those new to an MMO, that's a horrible clear time. Why did I do it? The people. The first generation of WoW players came from EQ. If you left a guild for progression you would get dirty looks like nobody's business. For some silly reason I had the moral of loyalty ingrained into me.

So then, I'm stuck in a guild. Why did I stay as a regular raider in a dead end guild that was clearly going nowhere fast instead of just pulling my power cable out? The people. For some silly reason it was genuinely entertaining to simply hang out with online people I could crack jokes to. That's why you play games right? To have fun? Silly concept. That's the main reason I play in forums too. Go figure.

So I've attempted to cover the good of people. Let's try the bad.

I want you, dear reader, to find a MMO's website and then look at their forums. You will find a compilation of people spewing vitriolic barbs of text at each other like you've never before seen. That's only the forums. The people in the game itself are far worse, it's real-time. Hell, I could probably watch a typical political debate over live television or a episode of Springer and just go "Meh, that's not a heated argument.". It's a veritable Murphy's Law of MMO players, "If you ever meet a random player during your gameplay, odds are they'll make you weep for humanity.".

So here we are. You play a MMO to swim through the muck and mire of awful people just to find the gems that give you hope. Sometimes you'll luck out on the first shot, sometimes you won't. That's really just one of the genre's features.

Personally I find the best kicker of the whole thing to be the fact that you're paying every month to enjoy this wonderful experience. So long as you get your new magical sword with glitter effects you can put up with anything.

Munch Munch

2008-04-14T06:31:00.002-05:00

I found this article a little bit ago. It looks particularly interesting when comparing not only expenditures, but also the amount of fresh to packaged food of each picture. I would love to know what kinds of things the Cairo family cooks up on a typical day.

Hooray!

2008-04-10T05:43:00.002-05:00

I have just recently learned that there's a possibility of one of my favorite shows airing more than once a week.

Okay, it's a kid's show and I'm in my 20s. So what? It's got awesome jokes and levels of corny that I like. I haven't seen this kind of humor since Pinky and the Brain back in the day. I loved that show. Animaniacs was great too.

*sigh*

No time to nostalgia, must get back to topic. So now that kicks my number of television shows I like to watch up to 2. The other being QI.........which doesn't air in the US so I have to scrounge the internet.

Here's a QI clip compilation for those who don't know of it.

You know, despite the fact I prefer somewhat educational shows with humor I still can't find a girl. Maybe I need to lower my standards.

*sigh*

When does American Idol and Survivor air?

Twingity Twangity Twong

2008-04-03T12:46:00.003-05:00

It appears I have run out of random things to think about for the time being. The main thing I'm stuck with this week is comical songs. I guess that will have to do given as how someone has managed to get me back in the groove of inventing song lyrics. I'll have to get back to you on the lyrics bit, but here's a summary of the stuff I've been listening to this week.

Thank you, by the way, random person who introduced me to more comical musicians. I only knew of Lynch and Weird Al. Conchords is new to me.

I was first shown this:

Which led to me finding this:

And of course that reminded me of Lynch......

Which brought me back to playing the guitar with soul.....

There's several versions of that song out there, but my favorite is this one. You just don't hear songs these days on the radio with that kind of soul, you know? It's a shame really.

The Great Outside

2008-04-02T05:53:00.002-05:00

So I was watching this show last night about how NASA was using that probe to take pictures of the surface of one of Saturn's moons. I was rather surprised that they were already up to sending a exploration probe to anywhere beyond Mars. Maybe sometime in this century they'll have taken surface photos of all the planets. I wonder if Pluto will be stripped of it's planet title again by the time they get to it.

This has led me to wonder about the possibility of sentient life out there. I'm guessing that we're not going to find any advanced civilizations due to the fact that our space probes haven't run into alien space probes. Maybe the aliens are still in the industrial era on Neptune or something. I would love to see a probe to Neptune sending back pictures of a Model T car. Even better, I'd want to see Ford try to make a case for copyright infringement against said invention.

Our supposed first contact is going to rock.

Having A Bad Day?

2008-03-31T06:06:00.001-05:00

Just sing this song and maybe it'll relieve some stress. Props if you've heard about it already.

Blargh Blargh Honk Honk

2008-03-27T12:07:00.002-05:00

Yes, that's an RvB reference. I'm so topical and "in" with current trends. I should hold a parade for some random and yet undisclosed reason! Then again it'd just be me walking down the street with some stick such as a ladle pretending it's a baton.

Anyways, today I shall regale you with this week's summary of random thought bubbles I've had. Maybe this time I'll be funny. Maybe. Let's get started.

Cars are an interesting thing. During a sunny day in traffic it's possible to see that guy in the car behind you via the rear mirror. I wonder if people do anything random with the intent of confusing the person watching through said mirror. Maybe they would be headbanging/rocking out while in actuality listening to NPR. I would probably do such a thing.

Another thing about drivers. You know those folks that crank their rap music (it seems to always be rap) so loud that the car vibrates with the beat? Just once I want to see a guy driving that vibrating car to some classical music like Bach or Beethoven. That's would make my day.

Kidz Bop is odd. Why do they have an entire franchise with commercials about little kids not even into puberty singing songs about heartbreaking romantic entanglements, getting booty, and hitting the party hard? Better question, who's buying the albums to keep the franchise running?

I want to see Bill Cosby in something like Smackdown. I can see it now: "I may not have the muscles, Hulkster, but this 70 year old's still spry enough to make you need to eat your Jell-O through a tube.".

I passed one of those religious soapbox types on the sidewalk an hour or so ago. He had chalk messages on the ground promoting tolerance and whatnot. What got me was the zealot yelling at a guy who shared the religion, but disagreed on some finer points by calling him a "wanna-be" and such despite the chalk writing. I don't think I'll entirely understand these people.

I've come to the conclusion that a blog is essentially a public diary. Why have I not capitalized on this? "Dear Blogger, today I met a new boy. He's so cute. After making out under the bleachers during homeroom he said he'll never leave me. Sure all my past boyfriends said the same thing, but this time it'll work out! A guy nicknamed "Shiv" with a pierced tongue and partial face tattoos would never do me wrong! Never! He's clearly a realer man than anyone I've met before."

Art Day

2008-03-26T06:11:00.012-05:00

At this point you should be dancing for joy or something. It's art day after all.

Anyways, I made mention a while back that I'm drawing and whatnot. It only makes a logical step that I should actually post some of that stuff I've drawn on the internet for all the world to criticize. I love this great series of tubes we swim through.

So there they are. You might need to squint to read some of my little captions next to the skelly doodles. In the meantime I'll amuse myself with the Phoenix Wright skelly I drew. I should play that game again.

More sketches in the future should this get some semblance of a positive response.

If You haven't Already.....

2008-03-21T07:24:00.002-05:00

Go read this. Just go. It's some of the best DnD webcomicry around. Sure I've never played the game, but if game sessions are anything like that I might give it a try.

Yar, I Like Large Booty And I'm Compulsorily Truthful...

2008-03-21T05:43:00.003-05:00

You other mateys can't deny.

I'll be good now.

I've been watching some gameplay of the Pirates game Disney came out with a few months back. Why not be curious? The only thing better than playing a game about pirates might one on ninjas or cowboys. I could go for that cowboy one actually. You don't see that genre very often in the MMO scene.

Enough rambling, back to the pirate game.

Pirates is another free to play MMO with an optional subscription that would give you cooler things to do. You're obviously a pirate, but you also get your own boat and have ocean battles as well as typical mano e mano swordplay you would expect from a pirate themed game. Overall it's pretty user friendly for a free game. I'm pretty sure a giant sunbeam shining down on where you need to go to next counts as idiotproof directions. Then again someone's bound to prove me wrong.

Personally I'm rather amused by some of the content in the game. For starters, you can play poker for money. I'm all for kids learning the valuable lesson on good ways to lose money but I'm rather surprised at this addition from something with the family friendly Disney tag on it. Maybe we're seeing a changing of the times here.

The other amusing kick I see in this game is the difference in fighting a zombie pirate and a live one. In both scenarios you can fight with swordplay to win. What is interesting is the fact that it is only zombies you can fight with a pistol. You are unable to fight a fellow living pirate due to the "Pirate's Code". I'm guessing this was to discourage kids from using guns in real life.

The funny part about this is that somehow shooting a small metal ball at a zombie with no nervous system or overall weak points (aside from maybe the joints) that would grant you victory. If anything shooting a live guy would be far more realistic. While on the subject of realism we'll keep in mind that we're talking colonial time firearms. That's a one shot gun that will need a complicated reload for another round. I somehow doubt some kid would want to simulate a realistic pirate's gun when the reload time is worse that a typical Nerf toy.

At least they can still gamble their way to riches in attempts to find a sword on Ebay from the colonial times. Maybe Civil War era if they're not that choosy. While they're waiting for the auction to close they can play pretend with the kitchen's silverware. So long as they aren't guns. Nope, guns bad, sharp blades and Vegas good. I love Disney.

I Love Cartoons

2008-03-19T07:15:00.008-05:00

So during Spring Break I catch some cartoon show my brother's watching. Suffice to say it may be the corniest thing I've seen yet. I never caught it's name, but I'll explain the 15-odd minutes of what I was watching.

The show centers around the stereotypical kid's show where little children with dangerous weapons go around fighting the bad people, typically adults. From what I can tell the weapons in question are summoned by the kids with "the power of imagination" or some other ridiculous notion. I particularly liked the rail-gun sword that shot out........wait for it.........swords.

If you think this is silly now, just wait until I tell you about the villain of the episode. True to form, he was an adult. Just as I would have guessed he also had a silly outfit and was for some strange reason only wearing a hat-cloak and a kilt. Maybe this is a subliminal message to kids, half naked men are up to no good. At any rate, I was making a good attempt at taking this show somewhat seriously (despite the fact the hero's shirt had a butterfly on it and his sidekick is a pink monkey) until they gave the bad guy a name.

Melmond

Serioulsy, Melmond.

With a name like Melmond I couldn't believe this was a villain. Villains are supposed to have names that strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. If anything all the other names were taken and this poor kid was doomed to the bottom of the name barrel. Of course at this point I could stop laughing at the absurdity of this character. For starters, he looked just like another fellow I knew. Let's look at them together.

Are they long lost brothers or what? Now this gets even better when they move down to a body shot of Melmond. We get to see his awesome abs.

This is just too good. Not everybody can get 3-pack abs. Even better, silver rupee abs. This dude's packing 600 Hyrulian dollars on his torso. Clearly this man is one bad mother hubbard.

Of course at this point I'm stuck with Zelda on the brain and I notice yet another nod to Nintendo's gaming empire. Twins.

One of these days I'm going to volunteer at a children's center or whatnot just to see what their impressions are when they see silly stuff like this. Sure half of them won't know about Ocarina of Time, but that just means they'll have some other wacky thing to refer to. I would love to find out what that is.

Quack Quack

2008-03-17T06:38:00.002-05:00

One of these days I just know this will happen. Sunspots in combination with the earth's ozone affected by global warming will give off a specific amount of heat radiation to give life to certain kinds of plastic. In this case, rubber duckies will turn into our supreme overlords.

How would this happen? Simple. Thanks to Sesame Street's pro duck campaign (Codenamed "Ernie") we now have several generations of rubber duck owners It's no surprise that the world's leaders also have their own duckies. Because of this error the duck offensive had men on the inside during the guerrilla offensive. After the leaders had been subdued it was easy for the ducks to rule from the shadows using a puppet government system. Most of the populace would hardly notice such a change.

All hail Lord Reginald Quackington the First!

Devil May Cry 4: The Angst

2008-03-12T06:18:00.005-05:00

Yes, the game has been out for a while. Yes, I'm behind the times for talking about such a game. It's my blog, so I'll be writing what I will. Before I go into depth here, I'm going to point out that I do not own either a Xbox360 or a PS3. How do I know what I'm talking about? Spoilers Mr. Frodo, in it's entirety. Go ahead, watch it in full. I'll wait.

All done? Terrific.

Reviewers and whatnot seem to think that this is a good game. I for one would put this just one notch above DMC2. You would probably be best off renting it. The reason? Nero.

For those who don't know Nero is essentially the main protagonist in this game. His arm is demonic and from what I can tell has joined a devil worshiping cult for one reason, a chick. We all have our priorities, and I can respect that. What I don't like about him are several things.

His story makes no sense
According to the game he was born with a normal human arm but got the new appendage somewhere down the line. It is never explained how. Furthermore, the opening scene depicts him hiding said arm in a sling. We would have to assume that this arm change would have had to be somewhat recent for the sling excuse to hold water.

Another annoyance to his story is the comment made by the main villain in this scene. Nero "carriies the blood of Sparda"? How? Unless Sparda had a mistress on the side, Dante/Vergil were big into blood transfusions, or Sparda took the phrase "Give me a hand." in the literal sense there's nothing going on here.

Suffice to say, there's an inconsistency in the storyline. Frankly speaking if they devoted as much time to ironing out the characters as they did to the excessive "jiggle physics" of most of the female cast then this would have been a much better game. I'm not saying that sort of thing should be eliminated if you're into that, but when a developer has to "sex up" a game (compare Lady's outfit from 3 and 4) I feel like I'm being given a red herring.

He is an angsty teenager
Seriously, he is. Everything about him screams teen angst. Take his combat moveset. Look at this movie's first fight, no more than a minute into the video. See the scene where he's bashing the enemy on the ground repeatedly with his sword? All I'm seeing is an angry little kid having a temper tantrum. You even see this in a later scene where after his chick gets kidnapped (again) he starts to cry and has another tantrum by smashing the ground over and over with his fist. Hell, his voice cracks in some of the scenes. Has he even hit puberty yet?

It's when I read that last paragraph again that I come to an epiphany. I've met Nero before. You could replace him with Daniel Radcliffe in the next Harry Potter movie and most people wouldn't tell the difference. That's it. I'm going back to reading the Dune series and trying to figure out what half the chapters are talking about. At least that makes more sense.

There's Something Wrong With You When....

2008-03-10T06:20:00.003-05:00

....you attempt to point to the telephone by the monitor by attempting to move the mouse cursor over it.

....your first instinct when someone tells you to go fetch a group of people and refers to them as a "posse" is to ride your pretend pony and sing the Lone Ranger theme.

...you ask your math teacher if the final exam gives points for creativity.

...your response to the test instructions "True or False (Circle Answer)" is to draw a circle around the word "answer".

...you feel the urge to explain circuit theory with interpretive dance.

...you see a chalkboard/dry-erase board and try to play hangman........during a lecture/presentation.

...you delight in social awkwardness when a stranger asks you to run somewhere and you pretend to be a paraplegic.

...you have an entire website dedicated to the random things that pop into your head.

The Bait That Got You Hooked

2008-03-09T10:03:00.015-05:00

Every gamer didn't start out a gamer. They got hooked to gaming by finding that game that put them on the road to digital bliss. It's the games that hooked us that we treat with the most nostalgia and feel like a kid again just by watching the intro sequence.

In a semi chronological / random order here's my top 10 game influences.

1.
King's Quest (PC) - KQ started it for me as a wee little lad no older than 10. There you are looking at this little pixelated chap wearing a Robin Hood cap waiting to do your every whim. Admittedly the best draw to a kid under ten for a game like King's Quest would be the chat command. You could spend all afternoon on that thing trying to insult your siblings or giggling when you type any command related to boogers. The other draw would naturally be the one part in the game (KQ 2 maybe?) where you throw the horse bridal on the snake and it turns into a bloody pegasus. That's mind blowing for a kid.

2.
Jill of the Jungle (PC) - Most people wouldn't know this one if I mentioned it. It was a shareware game that I played a few years after KQ. This is essentially my platforming equivalent to Mario Bros. It had three games of varying difficulty and had some pretty good puzzles in it as well. Plus of course you had flying knives, rebounding throwing stars, and the ability to turn into a phoenix. I loved every minute of it.

3.
Duke Nukem 3D (PC) - This was really my first serious introduction to FPS and PvP. I played it over LAN with the local kids on my street. In the beginning of course I stuck with the default weapon (pistol) because that's what worked in solo play. Suffice to say I didn't do well against people who knew what an RPG was. Over time we had some fun rounds of Hide-N-Seek and Try-To-Gun-Down-The-Dingus-With-The-Jetpack. We played many rounds of the latter. Some of my best gaming memories stem from moments in this game such as using the Shrink Ray to stomp the other player or trying to have jousting sessions with each other.

4.
Tie Fighter (PC) - Tie Fighter to me is quite possibly the best aviation simulator I have ever played. Not only do you fulfill your lifelong dream of being a pilot for The Empire but you get the coolest training missions. A tube filled with all sorts of obstacles to shoot and dodge while still trying to beat the clock? It's heaven. Of course the nifty thing about dogfighting in space is the lack of ground to smash into. In your face, physics.

5.
Starcraft (PC) - The same people I played in Duke Nukem I also played against in Starcraft. We would play for hours trying to whoop each other. The larger scaled fights were even better. Naturally like the goobers we were most fights ended up with people making bunker lines 3-4 bunkers thick in a manner of turtling to victory. Eventually I got a little tired of this inaction and decided to take matters into my own hands. I set up my three bases to crank out as many Mutalisks as I could possibly afford. I got about 3-4 groups (36-48 units) and sent them into battle. The sight of a Mutalisk swarm big enough to blot out your screen resulted in the most girlish scream from a boy I had ever heard. Of course after they wised up to my Mutalisk swarm they overcompensated air defense in the next match while I swarmed them with Ultralisks and Zerglings. Good times.

6.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - If you have followed my history up to now you will notice a trend. Every game up to now was for the PC. It was Zelda and Final Fantasy 7 that got me into console gaming. At this point I'm around 13 years of age with absolutely no critical thinking skills (I am edumacated good). The result of said judgment was struggling for three hours in the Great Deku Tree (first and easiest dungeon) wondering how the hell to get past the spider web on the floor so I could gain access to the basement levels. The idea of jumping from a high ledge to cut said web or bringing out a stick to set fire to said web was a completely foreign concept. This of course also hallmarks the dependency on gaming guides from the local bookstore. Later on I received redemption after beating Master Quest (OOC hard mode) and Twilight Princess with no dungeon guide aid. Sure I may have needed it outside the dungeons but give me a break, Skulltula and Poe hunting sucked.

On another note, I spent many months avoiding progressing in the game because the Shadow Temple scared me stiff. What? Dry-humping zombies, giant grab hands, skinless octopus handed things trying to eat you, and blood soaked walls are scary for a 13 year old right? Shut up, I got scared watching Jurassic Park, but I'm okay with that now.

7.
Chrono Cross (PS1) - I fell in love with Chrono Cross from the get go. The music from starting up the game was the wonderful thing I had heard in a video game. As for the game itself, I loved it for several reasons. (1) There were tons of people to put in my group. I like having such a large diversity of characters that could also have synergy (2 man special moves based on characters). (2) I loved the humor in it. A walking voodoo doll? Inept guards? Social awkwardness? It was great. (3) There was no level. In a typical RPG you will have your characters gain levels via experience bars and whatnot. In this game there were no experience bars. People simply gained stats. I loved that aspect. (4) The art was simply beautiful. The watercolored zones were a treat to play.

8.
Half-Life/Counterstrike (PC) - Round up the kiddies, it's time to go to town. I got to play this with a bunch of schoolmates during the high school years. The multiplayer matches were great. There was this one fellow who could top the charts using nothing but shotgun headshots. Even better was when he did nothing but fight with the crowbar. I myself go to have a little fun playing sniper and regular meat-shield. In one team match I was the only one standing on my side. Sure I lost, but I took a few down with me.

9.
Devil May Cry (PS2) - DMC got me into the newer age of platformers. It had good style and some pretty fun levels. It had a lava spider of course. You really can't go wrong with a game that lets you fight a lava spider. Now if you recall from earlier in the Zelda section I mentioned that I was easily spooked. DMC brought that back into the mix. From that first twitching puppet monster to the dark hallways there was plenty of opportunity to get spooked. The underwater levels were pretty good in the scare department as well. Over time I got to like the spookings and even got a kick out of the third installment of the series. Against my better judgment I replayed DMC2 several times over, but let's pretend that never happened.

10.
World of Warcraft (PC) - What can I say? Any game that got me to play for 3-odd years has got to be of some importance. WoW showed me some interesting tidbits of the human psyche and gave me a better scope of how large scale a multiplayer game could be. I led guilds and followed them. I saw and did a great many things that is similar, yet different from another player who played. I like how each player's gameplay is somewhat unique to themselves due to the open-ended style of the game. For me of course I became interested in the game's official forums. They rather remind me of a car wreck that you just can't take your eyes off of. I pity to poor soul who gets trapped in it's alluring web.

Good WTF Moment

2008-03-08T14:47:00.002-06:00

I was driving yesterday and came across the strangest thing at an intersection. This SUV had a wriggling fish on it's hitch. It took me a moment to take it in, but I have to admit that it's the cleverest thing I have ever seen.

Here's a video of the accessory I'm talking about:

Elementary, Dear Watson

2008-03-07T17:34:00.006-06:00

I have found a new game for me to play. Sleuth is an online game that lets you play as a private eye. Randomly generated cases certainly make things interesting. Personally my favorite draw to the game is not only how ridiculous the characters look but also the fact that you can edit your own player's background. Good times.

Here is me is all my glory:
That's probably why I also should not go into medicine. I would most likely actually do that......

"Yes Ma'am, you have a severe case of cooties."
"But my arm is broken!"
"That's why it's a severe case."

Edit: Apparently after a week of play you can't log in unless there's less than 70 people on. You need a subscription to play at any time. Fiendish way to get you hooked I'd say.

Confound It!

2008-03-07T06:14:00.002-06:00

When you post something in Blogger it does not list the time it was posted. Instead it lists the time of original creation of the post. It's a pet peeve really, but apparently it annoys me enough to post about it. I just ran through my settings and got nothing to let me change this. Any ideas?

Gotta Love Multiplayer

2008-03-06T06:25:00.002-06:00

As more people get into the online scene for gaming so does the number of griefers increase. It is with such griefers that abstract thought comes into play. Here's some fun examples of unusual thought patterns.

El Presidente

2008-03-06T06:00:00.003-06:00

So I was thinking about the presidential elections and came to an odd conclusion. Should Hilary win we will be looking at an interesting pattern. Starting from Bush Sr. we would be looking at over 20 years (1989-2013) of only two families as commander in chief. When I think about this pattern, two possibilities come to mind: monarchy and mafia.

I say monarchy because that's indirectly what it could be. There would be a father-son and a husband-wife connection happening. It could be sheer coincidence that this pattern occurs but I am highly amused at the thought of an democratic monarchy in a country that rid itself of the British monarchy.

I say mafia because that's also what it sounds like. There are two "families" who have ruled the US recently. Personally having Bush Sr. talk like the Godfather makes me laugh a bit. Then I remember that Bush did Texas and Bill did Arkansas. It would almost be like a weird hillbilly mafia. Please tells me someone named Cletus will come onto the scene. That would be too perfect.

I Am A Freak

2008-03-05T18:14:00.002-06:00

I'm part of the 2%.......

Oh yeah, click this for what I'm talking about.

I thought 12 and broccoli.

It's A Long Way To The Top

2008-03-04T12:42:00.005-06:00

I present to you undeniable proof that I am either very bored or listen to way too much AC/DC.

(to the tune of a very awesome song)

Scrolling down the browser
Clicking on a thread
Reading all the drama
Hoping it's not dead
See the flames
See the hate
Read the girl
Cheating on her mate
Random jibes
From some alt
See the guilty
Try to shift the fault

It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
You think it's easy to win a battle of wits
Try leaving that chat-room of twits
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll

/rock out to bagpipes

Forum's getting lively
They're spamming ASCII art
You knew people who did better
But you're just a forum fart
Walls of text
Lolcat spammed
Random memes
Permabanned
Logic here
Humor there
I tell you folks
You got to have some flair

It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
If you want to be the king of the rooks
I'll tell you now, just play it by the book

It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll
It's a long way to the top if you want to forum troll

/more rocking out to bagpipes

Link Day

2008-03-04T06:06:00.002-06:00

I'm going to link a few sites that you may or may not be familiar with. If nothing else they're a good way to eat up an afternoon.

Cute With Chris
If you do Youtube regularly you might have heard about this one. It's a show about puppy dogs and kittens. What? I can't watch a show about puppy dogs and kittens?

Bash
This is a website devoted to amusing quotes from various chat-rooms. Suffice to say some of them are very good.

Coolsig
Can't think of anything to put in your forum sig? Here you go.

Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors
This time we're playing for keeps.

Stories That Won't Happen

2008-03-03T13:33:00.002-06:00

This is pretty much standard fare what my brother and I talk about. That's right folks, it's not just me.

Nancy Drew and the Curse of the Monkey's Nipples

The startling revelation that inside the ark of Raiders of the Lost Ark was not actually evil souls and whatnot, but actually Indiana Jones' recording of his graduation recital from the "House of Ballet". Pink tutus melt faces.

My Little Ponies and Rasputin's Curse

Mickey Mouse Hits Puberty

Barbie Has an Inoperable Aneurysm

Pinocchio Travels Through Time and Eventually Learns the Time Warp (It's just a step to the right)

Must.....Get.....Rock Band......

2008-02-29T16:53:00.000-06:00

I Now Pretend To Be Educated

2008-02-29T09:39:00.006-06:00

Alright then. After a little more play time with ForumWarz I think I've got a rough feel for what's going on. As such, I'll attempt to give some semblance of a review.

ForumWarz is a free to play browser game that essentially simulates the internet. Yes, I'm serious. It's a game on the internet about playing the internet. You get a choice between three classes: the Camwhore (think MySpace girl or forum drama queen), the Emo Kid (think average WoW forum poster), and the Troll (think average WoW forum poster). Each class gets their version of health and mana that they use in the "pwning of forums".

What I mean by pwning forums is that you get missions to go to ridiculously themed forums and troll them with various attacks (pop culture spoilers, ASCII art, internet memes, etc.). After dealing sufficient damage to all the forum's threads you have successfully pwned the forum. There are various other missions you do such as having to cyber an aging old man pretending to be a 16 year old schoolgirl for a fetish picture or attacking forums with malicious code (just like the internet).

All in all it's a fairly good parody of the internet if you can understand the references. The scripted IRC chats and online stores are a nice touch. I would not recommend it to those easily offended however. You'll need a bit of thick skin to enjoy the game. For me personally I think it's certainly a good game to try out at least once. On the other hand I do prefer the humor and culture references in Kingdom of Loathing a bit more than this game. Man I love those stick figures.

I'm Slightly Unpleasant

2008-02-28T18:20:00.003-06:00

Heeding the advice of Broken Toys I went to try this little browser game. It's got it's moments of charm. I think I'll try it a little more to see more. Below is my guy. I would have picked the camera chick but that'd mean I'd have to wear lip gloss to get my head in the game.

I Have A New Favorite Show

2008-02-28T13:59:00.002-06:00

I must find out how to watch this show on it's regular airings. I haven't laughed this much in a while.

Need More Weapons

2008-02-28T05:54:00.002-06:00

WoW isn't too horrible in the weapons variety. The problem is that the recurring theme is getting old. For rogue's case raiders use swords, pvp uses maces, and in comparison not as many use fist weapons. It's getting a bit tiresome how it feels like everything is homogenized. Let's mix it up a little! Add in some new weapon types. Something!

On second thought, that would mean I would have to groan at the inevitable spamming of "epic flail".

Petitions

2008-02-27T06:30:00.003-06:00

So the other day I noticed that my classmates sould get student petitions for summer classes. This vaguely reminded me of WoW petitions in the forums for some silly buff or nerf to some class. When I thought about it, I realized that it's better if you use a petition for something you really really want.

If I could pass a petition for a single request, I would ask for a pony. In particular, I would ask for a little farm bred Shetland pony with a little midget man to ride him around like the Pony Express to deliver mail in some dreary office setting. Even better, the midget would make cutting remarks to anyone in general on a regular basis.

I would call it my Little House on the Prairie.

Fascinated Clicking

2008-02-26T12:26:00.004-06:00

I've posted before on how addicting it is to Stumble. It's really amazing to find all these things you never knew about before. After a good amount of time toying with the thing I've got a fair size of cool sites I found. You can see my profile in the Stumble link I added on the bottom of my sidebar.

Edit: Thinking html code is equivalent to forum code for linking and whatnot makes me sad. Also, here's a really weird drawing.

Forum "Questions"

2008-02-26T05:53:00.002-06:00

It strikes me as rather silly that I have a blog called Forum Zombie yet I have not made a single entry about forums. Go figure. So to fill in that bothersome criteria we've got this post.

One thing I would like to see on a forum is little games. There are some around already but threads like that don't happen often. What I would like to see is a game modeled after Whose Line's "Questions Only".

Here's what I mean:

In a forum you would basically divide the posters into groups and have them ask each other questions. The first to respond would keep the questions going with the original poster until one of them slips up. I would give a time limit on how long you had to respond before someone takes your spot.

Now in a forum it would take a little more time in responses. Of course due to that there would be more time to actually formulate a question so you might see less rotation of players. I was thinking of a hard cap of 3-5 minutes before someone else had to take your place in responding. I would have to try it out to get a better feel for the best time limit. All in all it's something I'd really like to try.

Nerd Pickup Lines

2008-02-25T05:55:00.004-06:00

Nerd girls exist right? I'm pretty sure that's the case. What I was thinking was a clever way to determine if the girl you're trying to woo is another person of science. As such, some nerd pickup lines.

Chemistry
Hey baby, what say we make like atoms and form a covalent bond?

Yeah, I'm a lot like oxygen. I like bonding with two atoms the most. Bring your friend.

Electricity
You look like an unfluxed inductor to me. What say we go to my place so I can turn you on and make the current flow.

Sure I've got protection. See? I'm connected to ground.

Coding
I've set up a while loop that won't stop until tomorrow, just like me.

So after compiling some python what say we go for some java?

In retrospect, I think I've figured out why I'm single.

Insert Revalation Here

2008-02-22T05:58:00.002-06:00

This one's gonna be a bit of a stretch, but it's proof I'm probably crazy.

I've been thinking about art in general. It could be a book, a play, or maybe a painting. Everybody has this idea in their head about what they want to do to get attention, so they go out and make the preparations. They think long and hard on their idea and how to make it good. For some they'll think of almost nothing but that idea and how to make it the best thing ever.

Then comes the curtain call. You've written your book, done your dance, and painted your masterpiece. You're drained of your idea and you've barely got anything left for the time being, but you're happy it's finally out there in the world. Everything now falls on the audience to determine whether or not they like it.

In my mind, what I just described sounds a lot like poo. Think about it. When you've had one of those really big meals you can bet you're going to be in the john for a while. It's a bit of a struggle, but you're more than happy to get that big one out of you. In some cases you're quite proud of your work and want to show your (very very close) friends. You might get some glitter or shape it into a happy face for effect.

That is art.

On second thought, I may have just described pregnancy as well. That's kind of weird.

I'm A Devious Mind

2008-02-21T13:42:00.005-06:00

So apparently I have discovered I had inadvertently suckered about 100 or so people into stumbling upon my blog because I have an entry titled "2.4 badge loot". I'm very sorry. I did not think that people would use Google for the latest patch news when there are excellent sources readily available. I also did not think that I would be listed as the 9th result in such a search. How the hell did that happen? At any rate now you know the linked websites exist so you may be better informed.

Originally I had thought the spike in traffic was from my comment in a game developer's blog. At least for a brief moment I could dream that my witty humor would whisk me away to some magical land where people snort pixie sticks for game ideas. I think I'll go back to trying to entertain the one regular reader I do have. Maybe one day I'll know who they are and why on earth they find me interesting.

So I've Been Thinking

2008-02-21T05:34:00.003-06:00

Yes yes, a dangerous thing indeed. I was thinking about how every now and then you can find people with tattoos related to their life. It might be a lover's name, a troop's emblem you served with in military, or maybe the phrase "insert here" for some of the freewheeling folks.

In particular I've wondered what a really awesome tattoo for your related work field would look like. For some reason the idea of a rough and tumble looking biker dude with a tattoo on his arm saying how much he rocks at physics makes me giggle. Even better, some C++ language in some sort of nerd humor with the code set on fire or something. I'd really love to see a big biker dude sporting that.

Random Ramble

2008-02-19T05:45:00.006-06:00

(Edit: If you have been referred here by some search engine, this may not be what you're looking for. This link should be what you're after.)

The 2.4 badge loot has now been fully disclosed via a vendor over in Sunwell Island. As expected, it does in fact cost more badges to buy BT level gear than the SSC/TK/ZA gear released in 2.3. At this point I'm really questioning what the point is. Blizzard already made it clear that the next expansion was most likely going to hit the shelves this year. As soon as that hits we're looking at yet another gear reset, thus nulling the gear you collect badges for.

Now if you only do heroics for badges, I don't think you'll be getting any of this gear any time soon. The people who raid might be looking at an upgrade every 3-5 weeks. The kicker of course is that you'd be raiding t4 content yet again. Now I've done Karazhan. It is long and filled with quite a bit of very boring trash. The concept of farming entry level content long past it's original date of clearing seems wrong to me. Back at level 60 people dreaded farming a boring trash filled place known as Molten Core, but they did it for almost two years for their T2 legs and Thunderfury drops. Sound similar?

I'm really not a fan of the time sinks for gear that Blizzard keeps churning out. So long as I've got the gear to handle the expansion's entry level zone I'm set. Why bother getting any more for PvE if you never raid past Kara and Zul'Aman? Maybe this one's beyond my understanding. Does anyone out there have any insight?

Time For Old School

2008-02-18T06:04:00.003-06:00

Last Saturdays was interesting. The Horde made a pug to Naxxramas and I got to tag along on my paladin. For those who don't know, Naxx is a 4 winged 40 man raid dungeon that was the pinnacle of level 60 raiding. For me it's another raid I never got to experience in the level 60 days. Suffice to say it's rather fun when people form raids to do this content at 70. I suppose that's one of the reasons Blizzard's making Naxx the entry raid for the next expansion.

So there I am playing healer whack-a-mole in Naxx. We managed to get the four wings done without much of a problem. The 4 Horseman did wipe us, but we came back and beat them. After the wings were cleared we went up to fight Sapphiron. Surprisingly enough he's still a challenge for level 70s. For me, the hardest part was trying to heal with all the graphics overloading my computer. Believe it or not, but it's rather difficult to get a good heal off when you're playing at 1-3 frames per second. After enough wipes we called it a raid and all went to bed. Maybe next time we'll wear some frost resist.

A Shout Out To My Homies

2008-02-15T06:34:00.003-06:00

Er, not really. If you've ever checked out some of the links on the sidebar you might have noticed that not everything is exclusively a WoW guide or information resource. Several of them are blogs by people who either work in the game industry (Jennings, Freeman, Weathers) or have been longtime game bloggers (Tobold, AFK Gamer). I like reading them every now and then because I want to see the bigger picture. I could go to the WoW boards and beg for a "blue" response as to why Skill A is now 5% less powerful than before or I could read the collective viewpoints of the people who make games like that and form my own conclusions. Option two makes me seem less like a needy brat, so let's go with that.

Here's some new links I plan to stick on the sidebar:

Relmstein is another MMO player with some fairly good insight. I like him.

[GM] Dave is a guy who gets to deal with Final Fantasy Online customers. These are his stories.

Gord is Gord. His stories are long history, but they are the stuff of legends.

I'm Gonna Need Those Reports By Monday

2008-02-14T12:26:00.009-06:00

So this blog has been running for what I imagine to be two weeks now. I think in those two weeks I have gone from completely incompetent about blogging to moderately incompetent about blogging. Let's have a parade.

Sometime last week I realized that it would be rather pointless to blog without knowing if anybody was actually reading. To that end I went out and got a traffic counter to see what's up. In particular I found a free counter that'll give me a cap of 500 page views and will simply overwrite the oldest data should I hit the cap. That doesn't sound to bad really. What I found most interesting was the range of data it could show me. Let's check out some of the data.

One of the things this thing can do is show a map of everyone who visits the site. According to the map there I have a reader in Warrington, England and one in Berlin, Germany as well as a majority in the US. I seem to have a reader up in Montreal Canada. Is that you Fep?

Moving on, we'll check browsers. It seems a majority use varying versions of Firefox. I really can't help but be reminded of this one graph. A few of you use Internet Explorer and some use Opera or Safari. I can't say I've ever used Opera or Safari. What's that like?

So that's about it really. You can check out some of the stuff yourself on the link at the sidebar. Some of this stuff is rather interesting.

Where's Dr. Ruth When You Need Her?

2008-02-14T12:20:00.004-06:00

So apparently Sunwell raid boss Brutalicus has been renamed to Brutallus. I can't really say I know why. Maybe some Blizz dev read my blog and thought they had a twisted sense of humor. Bugger if I know. Anyways, I'm rather disappointed at the name change. The old name required some modicum of creativity to get a joke out of. This new name just makes me think someone will write naughty limericks. Then again maybe that's just me.

There once was a gnome from Dallas........

So I Hear Hell Froze Over

2008-02-14T05:50:00.005-06:00

Now some of you folks may not realize this, but I dislike WoW PvP when I'm alone and in a battleground. I ran in good (emphasis on good) premades back in the day and it's rather hard to come back to PvP knowing it was more efficient and fun (emphasis on fun) with a bunch of not so braindead people who would laugh at my horrible jokes.

Good times.
/reminisce

Back to the topic of this post. I'm doing PvP again for what I suspect to be an excuse to get away from the horror that is grinding dailies daily and hoping the LFG tool will give me 4 people with at least some semblance of competence. Apparently if I get the not so bright folks in a battleground I will at least get some honor as a consolation prize. Unfortunately said prize reminds me of those annoying Participant Ribbons you get for coming in last place at a sport. Great, now I have the image of little children giggling as they collect said ribbons in an attempt to turn them in for a prize much like the Chuck E. Cheese game ticket racket. Sadly that's WoW PvP in a nutshell. You may start getting a hint as to why I'm not into PvP.

At any rate, I'm doing PvP with my horrible-for-PvP talent spec that's actually designed for PvE. This is a novel breakthrough, but unlike PvE, the thing you're trying to kill realizes that by moving around he has a chance to live longer. Because of this I'm about as useful as a can of soup with two forks duct taped to the side. Suffice to say that's not very fun. In a search for fun I went and tried something completely out of character for me. I actually specced out of Combat and went heavy into Subtlety. It's a novel idea really, investing heavily into a talent tree that was designed for PvP. So after this experimental change and tried it out in a battleground.

You may not realize this, but I was actually having fun.

Fun. Yes, I said it. fun in a PvP setting. Apparently making the logical leap to realize that it's not as entertaining to fit the circle peg into the square hole as it is to pick up the square peg and dink around with that for a while. Go figure. So now I've got this cool little move that lets me make ninja vanish teleports of win. At this point I'm half tempted to make some anime refference to Bleach or Naruto about super fast movement, but I won't. I've got better.

Hattori Hanzo. Hanzo was always my favorite ninja. No school like the old school.

So after playing with a heavy Subtlety build I realize that it's rather intricate really. For those non-rogues out there the best explanation I can give you is that I'm essentially playing a real time game of chess against an opponent where I have to consistently think at least 3 moves ahead in order to win. It's a very fancy dance. This is especially true when two good rogues fight each other. You're looking at both rogues at the exact same time using Cheap Shot to Gouge to Kidney Shot to Blind and than Vanish to start the dance again. It's an amazing experience. After thinking more of the way of intricate dance fighting I'm reminded of another game I would play that had an equally intricate fighting style. That would be Raphael of the Soul Caliber series. Raphael was a rather complex character that took some quick thinking to really flesh out his entire range of moves.

You know, when I put the two together I realize I just suggested I was a French ninja. I have the urge to get some french toast throwing stars now. It's the weapon you can eat!

I Love Paul Barnett

2008-02-12T14:02:00.001-06:00

Whether or not I actually go out and try Warhammer, I've got to admit that Paul Barnett is a fascinating person to watch explain things.

New link of a link of a thing Barnett explains.

This time, he explains MMOs.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

2008-02-12T12:17:00.001-06:00

Here's a fun picture of what the weather looks like outside:
So apparently I did not get the hint from last night's loud thunderstorm that I should pack a umbrella on my way to campus (college). Little did I know the dark clouds would decide to make it's joyous cloud tinkle just after I had finished lunch.

Wait, can clouds tinkle? Would that mean that thunder would be like a fart and lightning would be what happens if you hold a lighter near the cloud?

At any rate, I'm sopping wet and dreaming of the better days of high school where it wasn't a miniature city and you only cared about the rain when you had to walk to the trailer park classrooms (classrooms on trailers, all hail public school systems) or when you left for the day. Then I remember that high school had big halls and tiny doors. Getting through that kind of socially awkward mob in 5 minutes never was that fun.

You know, high school sounds a lot like the WoW forums........

I Keep On Falling In Love With You

2008-02-12T06:53:00.001-06:00

So a few days back I discovered Stumbleupon. It's quite fascinating really. It shows you these wonderful websites that you may have never known about before. After I showed it to Madget yesterday he showed me the results of his fascinated clicking. Suffice to say I'm going to feel dirty if I ever have to call him on the phone.

Here's the coolest site I found.

Voltron Rocks

2008-02-11T14:27:00.001-06:00

For a very long time now one of my realm's forum posters has had a quote of mine in his sig. The quote was just a post I made on some thread, but it did have a reference to a recording I had made at the time as well. To my knowledge said poster has never heard the recording that gave birth to his sig:

"They kill my bosses with gnome orgies and Voltron powers......"

So without further waiting, the recording.

Recording of Awesome

+10 win points to Madget and Scyllah for helping get this to work.
-15 win points to Scyllah for scarring my eyes forever.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2008-02-11T06:09:00.001-06:00

So I'm looking at the boss models people over at mmo-champion found with the 2.4 patch. Given as how the first boss, Kalecgos, has held raiders at bay for the moment I can only assume that one boss who caught my attention will be there.

His name is apparently Frostlord.
Happy looking fellow, isn't he? It seems that one of his drops is that nasty looking scythe of his. I half expect some Grim Reaper roleplay in the future.

What really caught my attention is that he's 4th in the line of what I would describe as Elemental Lords. We've already got Ragnaros, Thunderaan, Murmer, and now this chap. Now my first impression after seeing the first two was that they were going for a Captain Planet approach. They would be fire and air respectively. Murmer (sound) threw me for a loop, but with this quasi-water type thing I'm starting to wonder if there's a Captain Planet lord down the line.

We could name it after Ted Turner.

Linky Linky

2008-02-10T08:23:00.000-06:00

This is awesome.

On another bit, I recently found out the guys who did the sketch "Boot to the Head" also did some other good ones. Here's a few.

They were all audio, but I like that video version best compared to the others.

There was a WoW version of that one.

Conjure manna biscuits takes on a whole new meaning now folks.

Oh Noes!

2008-02-09T15:36:00.000-06:00

Note: This isn't related to WoW. Those who think I'm sticking to just WoW related topics are mistaken. Sorry.

So a few days back I'm browsing through the net and I discover that Dynasty Warriors 6 is slated to release the 19th of this month. Given as how I don't actually own a 7th generation console (Wii/Xbox 360/PS3) I won't be getting the game any time soon. In this case I decided to check out Youtube to see how things were from the Japanese release. Based on videos, I have made some conclusions.

The Good

You can call for your horse.
You can level up mid-mission.
The story isn't a complete rehash of it's predecessors, but does in fact have some changes.
No "fog of war" in the distance.

The Bad

Significant changes to the characters' fighting styles were made.
Some notable characters are no longer playable.
The issue with enemy mobs fading in and out of reality still exists.

Now this is just me, but I really like the old school character designs. I applaud Koei for trying to mix things up a bit on a franchise that's suffered from stagnation, but in doing so, they killed some of the life the game had. In the previous games many characters had several unique and interesting styles of play. In this game it feels homogenized in my point of view. Many of the unique weapons were replaced with a spear or other polearm.

Here's a vid of the new character designs:

Those who've played earlier versions may recognize some of the changes. I'll make a couple examples for those who didn't.

Here's one of my favaroite characters, the astoundingly flaming Zhang He on the right. As you can see, he's got arm claws and makes WoW's paladin look like the most masculine entity in the world. Need proof? I refer you to the video below.

See that? Fruity. In retrospect I sort of understand why not only did I like this character, but also why I raided with a paladin in WoW. I may be on to something. At any rate, in this new game they removed his "cat fight" claws and gave him another generic polearm. You can probably pick him out in the video shown earlier. He's the fruity looking one. It's hard to miss. Really really hard to miss.

Personally, the one thing that got me was the change to Pang Tong. I loved that guy. His move-set, his design, everything. Then I saw the new design along with his moves. Now he's just some yeti...............thing that waggles a stick around. Suffice to say I'm disappointed. I'll just stay content with my older version while waiting to see what Sucker Punch does to Sly Cooper 4. There's still hope.

Information Overload

2008-02-09T08:50:00.001-06:00

Well folks, it's time. Patch 2.4's PTR notes are up and running. The notes can be found here. As you peruse them, you may see some notable notes worthy of a hip hip hurrah.

A representative of the Keepers of Time has been spotted at the World’s End Tavern in Shattrath. Players in good standing with the faction will be granted ease of passage to the Caverns of Time.

This really helps with speedy travel. WoW has always had a problem with that.

Spirit-Based Mana Regeneration: This system has been adjusted so that as your intellect rises, you will regenerate more mana per point of spirit.

It's pretty nice for those spirit based class, but I'm a little bummed it does not regenerate mana like mp5.

Ritual of Summoning can be used to summon players into instances if they meet the instance requirements.

Speedy summons. Very nice.

Diminishing returns on honor for kills is being eliminated.
Honor will now be instantly calculated, and available for player use.

Improving the honor grind by speeding up the process. That's good.

Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter Hyjal. Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter the Black Temple.

There's a little bit of animosity from this by some raiders, but this is a wise move. The "hardcore" raiders have had months to get BT done. After this amount of time making the sandbox more accessible will certainly help retain subscriptions. Not only that, but heroic badges will also give BT quality gear (source). Because of that it's much easier to have the gear to tackle the dungeon.

You can find more information such as pictures and blue posts here. The weapons and armor naturally range from silly to cool. There's one thing that interest me in particular though. It's a new mount attainable through the trading card game.

It's like Wile E. Coyote decided to play WoW and wanted to ride in style. *meep** meep*

I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie

2008-02-08T13:00:00.001-06:00

Continuing with the armor diatribe I thought it would be fun to point out another matter of "scale". For those of you that don't know, Princess Theredras is the ugliest thing to have ever existed in WoW. She's the final boss of the 5 man dungeon Maraudon. You can see a picture of her on the side there. Yep, she's a looker alright.

Anyways, this brings me to the armor bit. On of her drops is a pair of plate leggings. Now on a dude they don't look too bad really. They look like a regular pair of leggings. On a chick however you get a different look. Now what I want to know is why it's possible to wear a bikini like that from a creature like that. Weird, huh?

I've Figured It Out

2008-02-07T06:04:00.001-06:00

You know all those logical inconsistencies that happen when you play a MMO? You know, armor off a wolf, a weapon off a guy that fights unarmed, or even the whole concept of "pulling" a mob group while the next group not 20 feet away just stands there and lets them die. Well, I've figured out a way the mobs can stick it to the players that come kill them.

The answer? No more "one size fits all" clothing.

Think about it. When you kill a dungeon boss and he drops loot, you may get a piece of armor. What you may also notice is that same armor that fits your Tauren like a glove would also fit a Dwarf. Weird, huh? Anyways, if all armor was by default sized only to fit the stature of a Gnome, then most dungeons would never be cleared for lack of sufficient gear on the players. Well, Blood Elves might be able to wear the armor, but that's a given.

Another Brick In The Wall

2008-02-06T06:15:00.002-06:00

So I'm getting back into the swing of drawing. I haven't really done any serious artwork for years now. Anyways, my current little project is drawing landscapes. On paper, drawing a brick building doesn't sound too bad, but then you get into the practice of it. Believe it or not, but the actual creation of all those little bricks on a wall's surface are rather time consuming to draw. Maybe next time I'll just draw drywall. I've been around drywall enough, it doesn't seem too difficult to detail.

In partial relation, here's a couple artist's sites I visit from time to time.

Banksy
He's a graffiti artist in England. His history can be found here. I rather like some of the things he comes up with.

Sons of the Storm
It's the art site for some of Blizzard's artists such as Samwise Didier and Chris Metzen. Visit it if you don't already.

I Cast Magic Missles At The Darkness!

2008-02-05T05:38:00.001-06:00

Going through Jeff's older posts led me to some funny quotes from Madtoad's DnD group. I liked them, so enjoy.

Ice Ice Baby

2008-02-04T06:04:00.000-06:00

So the other day I'm doing an Arcatraz run with a frost mage. One of my habits is to inspect other people's talent specs to see how well they allocated their points. This particular mage didn't seem to have a firm grasp of the Frost tree for two reasons. Not only did he (1) take Frostbite without Shatter, but (2) he did not take Arctic Reach.

Now my mage is only in the 20s, but I like to think I have a good grasp of how some talents can work together. Look at Frostbite and Shatter. They have synergy because Shatter allows for more damage when a target is frozen from either Frost Nova or Frostbite's chill effect. See that? Synergy.

Not taking Arctic Reach was something I really don't understand. By increasing the range of your abilities you increase the area around your body in which you can attack. A larger circle of influence sounds good to me.

That's all for now. Maybe next time we'll find a group with a fury warrior who uses 2-handed weapons or a hunter who gears up for strength.

Move Aside, Eddie Izzard

2008-02-03T07:19:00.001-06:00

PvP is fun in some respects. You get to match wits with other players and pummel them into the ground. When one normally thinks of PvP in WoW terms we think of spec, gear, and skill. What you don't hear much about is underhanded tactics. That's what I'm here today about.

You may have realized this, a phenomenon in which each class has their own gear set which makes them easily identifiable. Brown armor? Druid. Fuel exhaust shoulders? Hunter. After a while it's not hard at all to spot who's who at a quick glance and respond accordingly. What I like to do however, is change things up a bit. There is one distinct feature that separates rogues, hunters, and warriors from everybody else. They don't have gear that looks like a dress.

So what do we do before heading to the PvP killfest? Simple!

With a getup like this there is a fair probability some poor fool will mistake you for a mage or other spellcasting class. Just sit back and watch those warlocks try to stop you with Curse of Tongues or Drain Mana.

Good times.

Quick Tips For New Rogues

2008-02-02T06:44:00.000-06:00

In a MMO there's quite a few things that the manual won't really tell you. In fact there are several nuances you'll need to pick up as you play. Here's some things I learned when leveling. With any luck you will take these lessons to heart when you start up your own rogue.

Vanish can be used outside of stealth. Ignore the tooltip's description of "improved stealth". You don't put it on your stealth bar and use it when you are having a really hard time sneaking around. Also, don't leave it on your stealth bar for 30 levels.

Having a dagger in your mainhand means that while you can use high damage moves like Backstab and Ambush, your damage from Sinister Strike will suffer. As a result, it's a bad idea to start the fight with Ambush and do the rest with Sinister Strike. Using Gouge or Kidney shot should give you the opportunity to position behind the target for Backstab.

Don't use Deadly Poison when trying to Gouge.

Evasion, while handy against melee opponents, does not mean you can evade a mage's fireballs Matrix style.

Don't spec Dagger Specialization and Sword Specialization at the same time.

Tapping the Sinister Strike button like a hummingbird on coffee does not make the energy needed for the skill regenerate any faster. It will just kill your keyboard.

Using Pickpocket does not mean you are stealing the loot they would have dropped when you killed them.

Feint will not help you in solo play. The tooltip's "enemies are less likely to hit you" does not mean that you will evade their attacks.

Strength, Spirit, and Intellect are not good stats to actively pursue as a rogue.

Expose Armor is not a skill you use to literally remove your target's armor. You can leave that all girl npc camp now.

So there's some good tips for the rogue just starting out. Post your own tips.

Who Loves Chef Boyardee?

2008-02-01T12:18:00.000-06:00

We have our first blog request it seems. One of our readers wants to know the eating habits of the undead as well as my phone number. The phone number part's wrong, but I'm a sad and lonely man who needs to dream sometimes.

Yeah.........

Now where was I? Ah yes, zombie food. For those of you in the know, WoW's undead have a racial ability called Cannibalize. Think of it as a free bandage you looted off of that annoying hunter who tried to steal your mining node. What some people don't know is that there are certain intricacies that go with the eating of sentient flesh.

What is cannibalism?
Technically cannibalism is the eating of another of your kind. Ethically it's frowned upon to eat the flesh of another, but I have the solution for your moral conundrum. If you apply this to WoW terms, in reality it should mean a player's race eating it's own. Now while it's true that most undead's taste buds have long since died, we don't really want another guy's intestinal maggot colony moving in on the tapeworm family we've got chilling out in our stomach. Because of that we go out and eat other races' bodies. They're just lying there after all. Since they aren't actually the same as you it's not really cannibalism. Undead don't have cow horns or pointy Spock ears, so they really can't count as undead. Congratulations, you're ethically free!

What about taste?
In the circles of eating fresh man-meat, there's certain hierarchies of taste. Trolls for example refuse to eat gnomes and dwarves due to the fact that their heads come pre-shrunk. To undead, gnomes and dwarves are excellent. Gnomes are really tender like veal and dwarves come marinated in ten different kinds of alcohol. Night elf is something like fancy dining. Sure the meal looks pretty, but it doesn't have much substance. Now the real meal you want to try is the new entree, the Draenei. They're like surf and turf incarnate. Want seafood? Eat a dude. Need some goat meat? Draenei chick's your choice.

That's really all about an undead's eating habits in a nutshell. Now you know.

Pretty In Pink

2008-01-31T20:47:00.001-06:00

One of the upcoming Sunwell bosses is a pit lord by the name of Brutalicus. Let's take a look at him shall we?
Well, he certainly looks big and mean. Now imagine what I suspect will be a common error. In a simple typo error it's entirely possible to mistake his name as Brutalicious. These days whenever I think of the suffix -licious my brain goes to the song Fergalicous because they repeat -licous so many times. It's quite maddening, but I digress. Let's see what would happen if we combined the boss with the song.

When you think about it, that's not such a bad idea really. He could get reskinned pink and have some very shiny finery on his person. Let's go one more and give him abilities that reflect this new change. For one, let's make his primary move a big slam with his gold studded forelegs. We could name it "24 Carat Crush". Sounds fun, doesn't it? Let's not forget that a pop star isn't a pop star without back up dancers, so let's bring in some adds as well. We could make it a dance-off type fight where all the adds must be engaged at the same time while following some sort of Dance Dance Revolution style choreography or else Brutalicious gains a buff called "Lord of the Dance" that increases that damage done by his Crush move.

I would love to see that.

Testing 1...2...3.....

2008-01-31T13:39:00.000-06:00

Can anybody hear me?

Right then, let's try this out. My name is Sternums and I'm a forum troll for World of Warcraft. My hobbies include picking daisies, knitting, and hugging ponies. That is of course untrue, but I think it's fun to say that. Not many people would admit that hugging a pony was manly. At any rate, I do like reading webcomics, game blogs, and of course reading forums.

This blog is something of an experiment. In the recent years I've never really had a medium to practice my writing outside of regular forum fare. After reading some blogs over time I figured I could give this a shot. I'm not entirely certain what I'd like to do with this blog, but I can think of some things I'd like to do. I'd like to use this site as a means to store links I find on the net. I'd also like to post random ramblings and such while replying to questions some folks might have.

Given how this is the first post, let's start with a fun/embarrassing history lesson.

Sternumus is technically my third character. I dinked around with a dwarf hunter and undead rogue during the original open beta. Given how it was my first MMO I didn't get very far into it with beta. The dwarf only made it to level 10ish at Ironforge before beta was done. After that little taste of the nicotine that was WoW I went off and picked up a collector's edition at release. All hail the Zergling pet. A little enamored with the rogue and undead combination I decided to go with that. Sternumus is the combination of the sternum bone and a gladiator name such as Spartacus. With my semi creative name I was out to explore.

I should probably take this moment to mention my computer was ancient. The video and memory cards were dinosaurs for their time. Whenever I hit a heavily populated area such as a main city my screen took a turn for the worse. We're talking graphical layers going in all sorts of vectors. Suffice to say I spent alot of time walking blindly and hoping the minimap didn't do me wrong. The memory card's lovely contribution meant that any loading time would take 5-10 minutes. You think your zeppelin ride was bad? Think about a loading time so bad that you can see the zeppelin change course while still on the loading screen. Twice. Character login took a good 15 minutes easily.

I made it all the way to 60 and spent an additional few months doing 5 mans, old school AV/Hillsbrad pvp, and raiding MC under those conditions. Looking back I was either a masochist, hardcore, or the Grand Poobah of DumbDumbland. After upgrading those two cards I celebrated by running headlong into the AE spamfest of in AV as well as zoning in and out of MC giggling like a schoolgirl the whole time. I kid you not. Girlish giggling while spending a good 20 minutes just zoning in and out marveling how instantaneous it was. You could probably have revoked my manly man rights right there.

So what did we learn today kids? Read the recommended system requirements of a PC game before you buy it. PCs aren't consoles. You may have to do legwork to get the most out of you performance. Sadly I'm pretty sure I'll make this same mistake again somewhere down the line.