Sunday, May 31, 2015
10 years, 2 days
Wow, I've had this blog for 10 years (+2 days due to my procrastination).
I suppose this warrants something bigger than just an obligatory "one post a month", but I'm tired and am still treading water in the gaming world due to real life. So it is what it is and ten years of doing anything is still impressive IMHO.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Raph Koster bleeds
This is an amazing read: Raph Koster revisits the fabled time of game development that lead up to the launch of Star Wars Galaxies(SWG) and it's initial game systems for attaining Jedi status.
I've never really gotten over SWG, what it could have been after launch, and its eventual collapse. Reading this article from Raph I get the sense that he was as heartbroken as we were as initial forum goers and beat testers. Raph's words bleed a passion and intelligence that is absent in today's game design. They are what hooked us then and what I think will let us close the book on the SWG chapter in our MMO careers.
I've never really gotten over SWG, what it could have been after launch, and its eventual collapse. Reading this article from Raph I get the sense that he was as heartbroken as we were as initial forum goers and beat testers. Raph's words bleed a passion and intelligence that is absent in today's game design. They are what hooked us then and what I think will let us close the book on the SWG chapter in our MMO careers.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Battlefield Heroes to close
Sad news; Battlefield Heroes is set to shut it's doors this July.
This is unfortunate news alongside EA's other announcements about shuttering the rest of their Pay 2 Win ... err... Free 2 Play titles.
Personally I felt that Heroes was one of the better games of the Battlefield line up right behind Battlefield 2 and the original Battlefield 1942. Heroes was easy to get into and offered an amazing amount of game play for free. Unfortunately that is likely what has done it in over the long run.
At it's peak Heroes had reported player numbers of 10 million (geez, remember when we thought 250,000 was A LOT when talking about online games), but I suspect many of those millions were non-paying entities. Eventually more and more "pay 2 win" aspects crept into the game. Before long and about the time I stopped playing players had to pay up or go home.
In my opinion I don't think free 2 play has much to do with this closure at all. EA is well known for closing down old games and shutting off the servers. Heroes will just be another on the pile of games long abandoned by EA. The real question for us to be asking is what, if anything, EA will change in the future to mitigate their constant disappointments with maintaining games with online components. As a regular player of free 2 play titles and other online games these moves certainly don't give me any confidence in EA's ability to provide any decent long term investment.
EA is basically death for most of what it touches.
This is unfortunate news alongside EA's other announcements about shuttering the rest of their Pay 2 Win ... err... Free 2 Play titles.
Personally I felt that Heroes was one of the better games of the Battlefield line up right behind Battlefield 2 and the original Battlefield 1942. Heroes was easy to get into and offered an amazing amount of game play for free. Unfortunately that is likely what has done it in over the long run.
At it's peak Heroes had reported player numbers of 10 million (geez, remember when we thought 250,000 was A LOT when talking about online games), but I suspect many of those millions were non-paying entities. Eventually more and more "pay 2 win" aspects crept into the game. Before long and about the time I stopped playing players had to pay up or go home.
In my opinion I don't think free 2 play has much to do with this closure at all. EA is well known for closing down old games and shutting off the servers. Heroes will just be another on the pile of games long abandoned by EA. The real question for us to be asking is what, if anything, EA will change in the future to mitigate their constant disappointments with maintaining games with online components. As a regular player of free 2 play titles and other online games these moves certainly don't give me any confidence in EA's ability to provide any decent long term investment.
EA is basically death for most of what it touches.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Acceptable to be unacceptable?
As a Packers fan I just don't know what to say. First, it is acceptable to lose in the NFC Championship game.
However, the way in which the Packers just lost the NFC Championship game is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to lose when you have a 12 point lead with less than 5 minutes remaining. It is unacceptable to botch special teams plays. It is unacceptable to play an entire half of football in the National Football League like you are trying not to lose. Go out; win the game. Don't turtle in and mutter "how the fuck did that just happen" when the other team plays to win and does in fact win.
I have never been physically ill after a game. I can't eat dinner right now. I can't even determine if this is real. Someone pinch me.
Thank you Green Bay and Seattle for an amazing game.
However, the way in which the Packers just lost the NFC Championship game is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to lose when you have a 12 point lead with less than 5 minutes remaining. It is unacceptable to botch special teams plays. It is unacceptable to play an entire half of football in the National Football League like you are trying not to lose. Go out; win the game. Don't turtle in and mutter "how the fuck did that just happen" when the other team plays to win and does in fact win.I have never been physically ill after a game. I can't eat dinner right now. I can't even determine if this is real. Someone pinch me.
Thank you Green Bay and Seattle for an amazing game.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
GPU upgrade time: XFX Double Dissipation R9-290X-EDFD Radeon R9 290X
It was 2009 when I last upgraded my computers GPU (aka video card) to an EVGA GTX 260. That little baby has served me for over five years and is still ticking away without problem. However, it was becoming extremely noticeable in games like Guild Wars 2 and Bioshock Infinite that I was playing on outdated hardware. Even though I had more ram and a SSD speeding things up the message was all but clear as my machine continued to come to a crawl during intensive graphical encounters.
So I waited all Black Friday and no great deals surfaced (at least ones I could get to before they sold out). I checked all weekend. I checked all of Cyber Monday. Nothing. Then the day after, Giving Tuesday as it is apparently called, an R9 290X surfaced for $299 after rebate via NewEgg. Not as great as the $249 R9 290X deals I missed on Black Friday, but good enough for me to pull the trigger.
Proud new owner of this:
So I waited all Black Friday and no great deals surfaced (at least ones I could get to before they sold out). I checked all weekend. I checked all of Cyber Monday. Nothing. Then the day after, Giving Tuesday as it is apparently called, an R9 290X surfaced for $299 after rebate via NewEgg. Not as great as the $249 R9 290X deals I missed on Black Friday, but good enough for me to pull the trigger.
Proud new owner of this:
Friday, November 28, 2014
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