Blizzard taking account security seriously with mandatory authenticators?

WoW.com is reporting that Blizzard may ratchet up account security by requiring the use of authenticators on ALL accounts.

WoW.com has learned through trusted sources close to the situation that Blizzard is giving serious consideration to making authenticators mandatory on all accounts. According to our sources, while this policy has not been implemented yet and the details are not finalized, it is a virtually forgone conclusion that it will happen.

I think this is a great move for World of Warcraft.  The negatives are limited, while the positives gained are far reaching. After the initial implementation spike in support requests die down, this will dramatically reduce support costs in the long run as hacked account support stops clogging the support queues.  Players will gain peace of mind that their accounts are secure and that should something go wrong, Blizzard's support will be able to resolve it in a timely manner.

Avatar: I should hate this movie.

Avatar: I should hate this movie.  It depicts a resource-hungry, western-style civilization destroying the native inhabitants of a planet through technological and military might.

The story is predictable and the characters one-sided.  The marine kills, the natives are misunderstood savages.  Everything fits into the expected cliches of a cultural clash on a clandestine planet.

On top of the stereotypes, the hype should have killed this movie, but it didn't.  Avatar is a masterpiece.

Top Board Games of the Decade

The Thinking Gamer has a great post up covering the last ten years of board games with yearly favorites and his top 3 of the decade.

Here's my take on the best board games of the last decade, broken down year by year:

     2000 - Carcasonne
A really good game, and a truly innovative design space to explore as well. It's no longer in regular rotation for me, but Santa brought "The Kids of Carcasonne" for Kira this year and I highly recommend that variant for anyone with a budding gamer who's 4-7 years old. It's easy to learn and no reading is required, but it's got a surprising amount of depth of strategy — enough to keep things interesting for parents too.

Trine is fantastical eye-candy

I picked up Trine last night for $4.99 on Steam as part of the Holiday Sale.  I watched the videos prior to my purchase, but I didn't realize how stunning the visuals were until I started playing. For a side-scrolling platformer, Trine delivers amazing 3D backgrounds.  Also, the character models and enemies are well done.

On top of this, the game features top-notch physics game play as all manner of items can be moved and tossed around.  So far, this has given some great variety to the levels.  I often found multiple ways to complete a challenge.  However, with such open gameplay, I found myself often wondering if what I just did was what I was supposed to do or did I get lucky? Or did I miss something?  The game has kept me guessing, but thats a good thing.

I've embedded a video below of the game.  Sit back and enjoy the visuals!

Mirror's Edge is like Portal

Mirror's Edge is a racing puzzle game, not an action FPS.  The sooner that is understood, the sooner the game can be enjoyed.  Forget that there is gun-play, this game is all about getting from point A to B in the fastest time and most efficient manner.

The only game I can compare Mirror's Edge to is Portal. Both games are frustratingly hard and require copious amounts of trial and error.  The levels are NOT meant to be beaten the first time through.  At some points, both games almost demand the player goes to YouTube to find a walkthrough video.

Both games seem to make the complex simple and the simple complex. Many times while playing Mirror's Edge I would easily complete a complex running jump only to miss the next basic jump across a two foot gap. My guess is that so much trial and error goes into the tricky parts, that players unknowingly let up on the easy stuff. Still, sometimes I think the game just wanted to punish me for figuring something out.

After mastering a level, there is almost no challenge the second time through.  Re-playability is limited to those looking to beat their previous best.

Neither game features a UI. And with so many near misses and vertigo-inducing leaps in Mirror's Edge, a UI would have ruined the experience.

Like Portal, the story for Mirror's Edge serves little purpose other than giving a backdrop to the game and motivation for completing the levels. The story in Mirror's Edge isn't that bad and the world is fairly interesting (and beautifully rendered).

For characters, just as Portal features GLaDOS, Mirror's Edge features Merc (short for Mercury) as the overseeing director of activities. Fortunately, the leading lady, Faith, tends to speak up for herself in Mirror's Edge, where as Chell remained silent in Portal.

As a final nail in the comparison coffin, both games are far too short, ending promptly after a few hours of play. Mirror's Edge, well worth the $4.99 spent.