Random Dialogue

Two more stories to add to my pile of favorites:

Gabe and Tycho respond to Slashdot Questions

Ask Wil Wheaton Anything (Part Deux)

Day in pictures
Some of the most striking images from around the world on 29 November 2004.

Ukraine crisis
Images from Ukraine as the political crisis over the disputed presidential election enters a second week.

Kiev demonstrations
Protesters continue to mass in the streets of Kiev to demand action over the disputed presidential election.

Ukrainian rallies
Dancing their dissent on the streets of Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, hundreds are gathering in protest as the presidential election crisis continues.

Thanksgiving festivities
Americans around the world tuck into turkey as part of Thanksgiving celebrations.

oof.
I’m stuffed with stuffing and other stuff.
Gotta love Thanksgiving.

This has been quite a week. I’ll discuss it….now.

I spoke in front of classes at Memorial High School, for Aaron Pavao. To folks from Mr. P’s classes: Heya. I had a great time. The more advanced classes and I talked about college, hippies, graduation, looking for your first job, and I fielded a couple of excellent questions about the future of the gaming industry. The freshman classes were less interested in the future and more interested in the Xbox Next systems, which I was happy to assist them with.

Then yesterday morning I assisted Katie in reading to the wee ones at Eagle School. I provide a piritanical voice for her tales. We spent most of the afternoon and into the evening doing marriage councilling with our ceremony leader, my Aunt Jaci. I’m not going to say it was the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had, but I think it was really awesome in the end. In the process I got to spend time with my best girls so it was all okay in the end.

Today has been mostly food-licious, because Katie and I were incredible bums and got up late. Gabe and Tycho got back to my with their responses to the interview questions from a short while back, so those are going to go up on Monday.

My WoW review has been delayed thanks to the Thanksgiving goings-on. Hopefully that will go up on the morrow.

More later today or tomorrow on this relaxing week, which I am credibly thankful for.

Another review up on /.

Please direct your attention, if you will, to my review of Half-Life 2.

Brian has Katie’s computer at the moment, so instead of the mp3s we usually wake up to we’re having to make do with my crappy alarm clock what I used through most of college. Last night I did the thing that I did all the time in college when my subconcious decided I didn’t want to go to class: I set the alarm for 7 PM instead of 7 AM. So I didn’t get in to work until almost 10:30 today. My supe was surprisingly cool about it, so I’m not in any hot water, but still very frustrating. The early morning frustration has turned into entertainmantosity because it’s such a wonderful day. It’s damp and overcast but not very cold. I loves me those things what I just said.

It’s a good thing it’s so balmy right now because I have to pee outdoors. The bathrooms on this side of the building are beind remodeled, and the one-stall bathroom on the other side of the building smells like dead dog, so management has ameliorated our bathroom-using needs by providing us with port-a-pots. This is fine for the time being, given that November is behaving very much like October, but come the end of December I have a feeling I’m going to find it hard to use the bathroom cuz my genitals will have frozen off.

Last night (at a decent hour, i might add) I was playing HL2 and
omgitwassocooliwasonajetboatandtherweretheseguysandikilledthembydrivingthemoveranditwassoshinycool!

An inoccuously started thread on the MMOG commentary page Corpnews.com evolved about a week ago into a running commentary across several sites about Massive game design and what players are looking for in their online games.

The Original Corpnews Thread is interesting to read, but not essential to following the argument.

The argument continues off the thread via personal sites:

• Jeff Freeman responds.
• Abalieno says things.
• Damion ‘Ubiq’ Schubert interjects with some perspective.
• Freeman expands on his ideas.
• Ian ‘Anyuzer’ Reid vociferously objects.
• Scott ‘Lum’ Jennings pipes up from the coder’s corner.
• Ubiq retorts.
• Anyuzer further explains his POV.
• Freeman expounds again.

If you’re not willing to slog through the pages of text (and you should, it’s an interesting read), the jist of the discussion is this: What exactly is content in a Massively Multiplayer Game? Futhermore, what’s the difference between content and systems? Which is more key to the success of a game? Are other players content?

My take on this is that while content and systems are both equally important if I had to pick one that draws me to a game it would be content hands down. What keeps me there, though, is the systems that are in place to utilize the content. World of Warcraft’s backstory is amazing, but if the questing system hadn’t been up to the task of getting me involved in the story I would never have enjoyed the game as much as I have.

On the player note, I believe that players are indeed content…just not content that you can lean on. In other words, don’t make less content because there will be people to talk to. Take the existance of other people into account when you make your game, and warm bodies will become a related form of content. FFXI has quests where you have to group up with a certain number or type of other player in order to finish a quest. Getting folks together and in one place (herding cats) is indeed a form of content. FFXI is teh win because that’s not all you do in the game. They use players as a supporting mechanism for the content and systems they have in place.

I’m sitting here at work trying to keep my eyes open because I was up very late helping this one guy get to safety.

I’m about 4 hours into it, and Half Life 2 is pretty ding dang good. It’s not going to bear my children or cure cancer, but the graphics and physics engines are the most advanced I’ve ever gotten my hands on. The plot supposedly takes a dive after you get to safety, but right now I’m on the lam and having a really good time. Dodging flying buzzsaws while splashing through abandoned sewers makes for a pretty good time. Well, a good time unless it’s 3 in the morning, at which point it’s scary as hell.

I haven’t mentioned them of late, so I thought I’d talk a bit about the table top campaigns. Cormyr goes well. I needed a change of pace to get the group refocused on what’s to come, so at the moment they’re in the jungles of Chult working their way through an undead infested monastary. Just one more little tiny area to go and they should have it. Nevermind that it’s a womb of death used by a now long dead lich to breed his undead minions for world domination. Small thing.

The Eberron folks seem to be having a good time too. I would say we’re a little more than halfway through their first real dungeon, and we’re rapidly approaching the end of the first module. They’ve been navigating the rotating sphere-o-tron like pros, and have made buddies with a Dire Wolf and her cousins. We played last night, actually, because Eva has stuff this Thursday. We’re playing again next Monday because of Turkey Day. Looking forward to what will hopefully be the module’s climax.