Sorry for not updating the past two days. I was feeling a bit under the weather. I do have some good news, though. Yesterday, I got my acceptance letter for Mensa. Yeah! I'll be joining the Broward County chapter.
Yesterday I took my son to see the Veggie Tales Pirate Who Don't Do Anything movie. I enjoyed it, but he's still too young to handle a full length movie. About a half hour into it he was already saying that he wanted to go home. We did manage to make it through the whole movie, but it took alot of my daddy powers. I'm hoping by this time next year he'll be able to focus his attention for more than 20 minutes or so.
Overall, the movie was pretty good. The songs were catchy and the story was good. It wasn't as fast paced as the half hour episodes, but few movies are. If you have children, or are a big child yourself, I would recommend seeing it.
I also started playing Tenchu Z this week. I had never heard of this game before, but when I see something go under $30, I start researching it. The reviews were good, so I picked it up. Most games are pretty one dimension, even when they are good. Tenchu Z turned out to be surprisingly good and multi-dimensional. You can customize your character's abilities, outfits, and inventory. There is a large selection of skills, equipment, and outfits that unlock as you finish certain levels or complete certain accomplishments.
Tenchu Z is a mission based game where you assume the role of a ninja. You have alot of control over how you complete your missions. The key is to hide in the shadows, move slowly, and try to take out the guards as quietly as possible. Of course, you could just rampage your way through the entire mission, but you end up with your reward reduced for getting spotted and what they call mayhem time. You can also system link and go online to play with other people. I've replayed the first ten levels about 4 times each trying to improve my score, and I'm still not bored with them. Overall, a really good game.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Deltaverse
Another of my hobbies is a browser based game called AstroEmpires. The concept of the game is to colonize planets, build fleets, and do research. Of course it would appeal to a bean-counter like me.
There are multiple servers for the game, and Delta is the primary one that I focus on. I'm in a guild called GRITS. We bounce back and forth between being the first and second ranked guild on the server. It's usually pretty peaceful on Delta, but things have been heating up for the past two months, and they are just about to boil over. Two of our allies started fighting in our backyard, and a nightmare that dragged in almost all of our allies ensued. We stepped in a put a stop to it about a month ago, but now it's started up again.
WMD which is our closest ally is fighting 5555, which used to be a good ally, but they have been disrespecting us alot lately. 5555 started calling in other guilds from outside our territory, so we moved in to stop those other guilds from interfering. In retaliation, 5555 attacked our fleets and has apparently declared war on us. The funny thing is that our guildleader doesn't want us to fight them. I believe that he is afraid we will look like a bully if we attack them. I say smack them down and then sort that out later, but that's just me. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
There are multiple servers for the game, and Delta is the primary one that I focus on. I'm in a guild called GRITS. We bounce back and forth between being the first and second ranked guild on the server. It's usually pretty peaceful on Delta, but things have been heating up for the past two months, and they are just about to boil over. Two of our allies started fighting in our backyard, and a nightmare that dragged in almost all of our allies ensued. We stepped in a put a stop to it about a month ago, but now it's started up again.
WMD which is our closest ally is fighting 5555, which used to be a good ally, but they have been disrespecting us alot lately. 5555 started calling in other guilds from outside our territory, so we moved in to stop those other guilds from interfering. In retaliation, 5555 attacked our fleets and has apparently declared war on us. The funny thing is that our guildleader doesn't want us to fight them. I believe that he is afraid we will look like a bully if we attack them. I say smack them down and then sort that out later, but that's just me. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Which Witch is Really the Witch
On Saturday nights, I head up to the Adventure Game Store and play Witchhunter. One of the game's creators actually runs the game for us, so it makes a good game even better.
Witchhunter is a game based during colonial times on an Earth similar to our own. The major difference is that all those old wives tails and myths about monsters and witches are actually true. Player characters are parts of secret organizations that hunt these monsters down to make the world safer for humanity.
I play a German nobleman named Dieter Mannheim. He is a member of the Stalkers of the Unseen hunt and trained in the fighting tradition of the Freifechter Fencing Guild. That basically means that I have special maneuvers while wielding a greatsword. Due to a game mechanic called complexity, I sacrifice some of my combat skill while wielding the weapon, so while I do lots of damage when I hit, I don't hit often against major villains. However, Dieter's primary abilities focus around Command and Charm skills.
The other members of our witchhunting team include a German hunter, a German brawler, a French artisan, an English inquisitor, and a Dutch graverobber. These aren't your average heroes, eh?
We had our third session last night. Our first session, we hunted down an immortal pirate with a zombie crew. In the second session, we stopped a demon that was disguised as an angel hunting down sinners.
Last night we got to dig through a lot of misdirection to figure out who in the town was a witch. Our first suspect was a slave girl that witnesses saw kill a tree just by touching it. However, she had an alibi. She was with her master at the time cleaning out the cellar, and now she was deathly ill. The problem with her alibi was that her master, Abigail Green, was our second suspect, and even the slave girl said that Ms. Green was using witchcraft against her. Our final suspect was a Mr. Henry Sutton. Ms. Green accused him, but he was her major competitor in the lumber trade, so it could have been simply trying to eliminate the competition.
The climactic battle pitted our party against a demon, the witch, and more than a dozen mind-controlled lumberjacks. It looked grim at the outset, but I learned the value of parry and kept the two major villains at bay while my teammates worked through the minions. Once they were handled, we made short work of the other two.
Witchhunter is a game based during colonial times on an Earth similar to our own. The major difference is that all those old wives tails and myths about monsters and witches are actually true. Player characters are parts of secret organizations that hunt these monsters down to make the world safer for humanity.
I play a German nobleman named Dieter Mannheim. He is a member of the Stalkers of the Unseen hunt and trained in the fighting tradition of the Freifechter Fencing Guild. That basically means that I have special maneuvers while wielding a greatsword. Due to a game mechanic called complexity, I sacrifice some of my combat skill while wielding the weapon, so while I do lots of damage when I hit, I don't hit often against major villains. However, Dieter's primary abilities focus around Command and Charm skills.
The other members of our witchhunting team include a German hunter, a German brawler, a French artisan, an English inquisitor, and a Dutch graverobber. These aren't your average heroes, eh?
We had our third session last night. Our first session, we hunted down an immortal pirate with a zombie crew. In the second session, we stopped a demon that was disguised as an angel hunting down sinners.
Last night we got to dig through a lot of misdirection to figure out who in the town was a witch. Our first suspect was a slave girl that witnesses saw kill a tree just by touching it. However, she had an alibi. She was with her master at the time cleaning out the cellar, and now she was deathly ill. The problem with her alibi was that her master, Abigail Green, was our second suspect, and even the slave girl said that Ms. Green was using witchcraft against her. Our final suspect was a Mr. Henry Sutton. Ms. Green accused him, but he was her major competitor in the lumber trade, so it could have been simply trying to eliminate the competition.
The climactic battle pitted our party against a demon, the witch, and more than a dozen mind-controlled lumberjacks. It looked grim at the outset, but I learned the value of parry and kept the two major villains at bay while my teammates worked through the minions. Once they were handled, we made short work of the other two.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Video Killed the Radio Star
The need for instant gratification has been the bane of some of our favorite activities. Why should I play a board game when I can play it on the computer? Why should I roleplay when I can play an MMO? In our modern microwave society, it is difficult to find people who aren't looking for instant gratification. When I was a kid, we mailed off UPCs to get something cool in 6 to 8 weeks. I can't imagine a child doing that now.
I'll admit that sometimes it's nice to get the instant gratification. I play Guild Wars on Friday nights with my friends to get that, but we also play tabletop RPGs. The tabletop crowd has thinned quite a bit with the introduction of MMOs. To make matters worse, now people can't even wait to level up their character or get their special equipment. They buy money and items on ebay and pay other people to 'power-level' their characters.
Right now I'm playing a browser based game called AstroEmpires. One of the biggest complaints is that it takes forever to do anything. The game is played in real time, so even while you sleep, people are building and moving, and maybe even attacking you. It takes time to build up a strong empire, but some people would rather just play Starcraft, which is an awesome game, or something else where they can have everything built in less than an hour. My dirty little secret is that for me, AstroEmpires is a form of instant gratification. It reminds me of a play by email game I used to play called Fire on the Suns. You used to have to wait 2 weeks to get a turn processed, and you would accomplish only about as much as in a day of AstroEmpires. :)
I'll admit that sometimes it's nice to get the instant gratification. I play Guild Wars on Friday nights with my friends to get that, but we also play tabletop RPGs. The tabletop crowd has thinned quite a bit with the introduction of MMOs. To make matters worse, now people can't even wait to level up their character or get their special equipment. They buy money and items on ebay and pay other people to 'power-level' their characters.
Right now I'm playing a browser based game called AstroEmpires. One of the biggest complaints is that it takes forever to do anything. The game is played in real time, so even while you sleep, people are building and moving, and maybe even attacking you. It takes time to build up a strong empire, but some people would rather just play Starcraft, which is an awesome game, or something else where they can have everything built in less than an hour. My dirty little secret is that for me, AstroEmpires is a form of instant gratification. It reminds me of a play by email game I used to play called Fire on the Suns. You used to have to wait 2 weeks to get a turn processed, and you would accomplish only about as much as in a day of AstroEmpires. :)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Welcome to the World of Geeks
This serves as a welcome both to me, as this is my first post, and to anyone who finds what I have to say interesting. The word geek has long had a negative connotation that is used to hurt people who are often friendly and intelligent, despite having interests outside the box of 'normalcy'. I am a happy, well-adjusted geek with a good job, a family, and good friends. I hope that by sharing with all of you, I will be able to show people that they don't have to be afraid of being labeled a geek. It is often a path to creative freedom and self-fulfillment.
I love to read, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and I love to watch movies, mostly in the same genre as my reading. It is a shame that most science fiction and fantasy movies are handled poorly, though. Hats of to Peter Jackson for his work with Lord of the Rings. Hopefully, we'll see a new market for the kind of movies that we want to see. I actually enjoy watching a wide variety of movies, though nothing pisses me of more than what I call a 'Hollywoody' movie. The stories are weak. The characters are flat and undeveloped. And most of the time, there are tons of explosions that make no sense whatsoever. It's almost as if Hollywood is dumbing everything down so no one has to think when they see a movie.
I enjoy reading comics, though many of them suffer from the same 'Hollywoody' effect that the movies suffer from. I had just about given up on comics until I read Planet Hulk. Hulk isn't a title I normally read, but it looked interesting and it ended up being awesome.
I am a gamer and a gamemaster. I'm currently playing Witchhunter and running a Marvel Superheroes game. I also play GuildWars online.
I'm also a video gamer. I enjoy RTS, action, RPG, horror, and shooters. I play on PC and 360 mostly, though I may talk about some older systems from time to time.
For those of you wondering where my 'normalcy' is, I have a wife and a 4 year old son, and I work for an educational software company. I'll probably be talking about them alot too.
I look forward to sharing my geekiness and normalcy with all of you, and I hope you gain something from what I share.
I love to read, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and I love to watch movies, mostly in the same genre as my reading. It is a shame that most science fiction and fantasy movies are handled poorly, though. Hats of to Peter Jackson for his work with Lord of the Rings. Hopefully, we'll see a new market for the kind of movies that we want to see. I actually enjoy watching a wide variety of movies, though nothing pisses me of more than what I call a 'Hollywoody' movie. The stories are weak. The characters are flat and undeveloped. And most of the time, there are tons of explosions that make no sense whatsoever. It's almost as if Hollywood is dumbing everything down so no one has to think when they see a movie.
I enjoy reading comics, though many of them suffer from the same 'Hollywoody' effect that the movies suffer from. I had just about given up on comics until I read Planet Hulk. Hulk isn't a title I normally read, but it looked interesting and it ended up being awesome.
I am a gamer and a gamemaster. I'm currently playing Witchhunter and running a Marvel Superheroes game. I also play GuildWars online.
I'm also a video gamer. I enjoy RTS, action, RPG, horror, and shooters. I play on PC and 360 mostly, though I may talk about some older systems from time to time.
For those of you wondering where my 'normalcy' is, I have a wife and a 4 year old son, and I work for an educational software company. I'll probably be talking about them alot too.
I look forward to sharing my geekiness and normalcy with all of you, and I hope you gain something from what I share.
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