UPC - Utterly Pointless Crap

So seeing how I am moving to another country soon, I have obviously attempted to make arrangements for having my internet and TV lines disconnected. This has been a rather intresting display of complete incompetence from the staff at UPC.
The story begins with their website, which has these words of wisdom for the FAQ entry for cancelling and account "Call us on xxxxxxxx". So I did. I then sat for 30min waiting, while listening to a pleasantly calm, female voice telling me that if I had any unresolved issues I could call them. On the number which I had just used. "Please press 1 to press one." No shit sherlock...

After sitting for a good 20 minutes waiting, I was finally allowed to trudge my way through the abysmal phone system and talk to a support agent. At which point I was informed that in order to cancel my UPC account I had to specifically send them a regular, old-fashioned letter stating that I wanted the account closed. This she said, after spending 10min taking down everything from address to account number to confirm my identity.

Ok, so I send a letter. To the Internet Service Provider. I describe the exact dates I will be leaving, the dates I would like my connection terminated, my understanding of their ridiculous TOS and when they can pick up their routers and other crap. All of which should, must and have to take place at the end of the month, so I have time to do all the things I need to deal with in order to move country.

I then get a call from their technicians confirming that they will be picking it up. 3 weeks prior to the date I have requested. I say no. I then get a call from their sales department confirming that the connection will be terminated 2 weeks before the, now agreed with the technician, date. 1 week later I get *another* call from a technician saying they will be around to pick up their items later that day. While I am working.

Is the pattern beginning to show yet?
Over the next 2 weeks I get 2 more calls from technicians asking why I am not in when they try to pick up stuff. Each time I go over the situation. I want the connection removed on the 29th and the items picked up the 31st. Each time they state a completely different date and claim that "it has already been agreed on with you".
This Monday, I get back from work only to find my internet dead, my TV stating my line is terminated and no warning. Calling tech support (again spending 30min trying to get through) I sit for a good 20min while the support personnel try to save their own ass and pass the buck onto someone else.

Finally I am transferred to sales, which are adamant that unless a date is agreed upon already, it is standard procedure to cut the connection a month after the letter is received. Apparently completely ignoring anything that is actually written in the letter, alongside any agreements already made.
At this point my patience is getting somewhat thin, so I simply tell them to get my f**king crap back online if they want their money. A few hours later I can finally get online as well as watch TV again. I then ring their techie department specifically to arrange the pickup of my router and TV box from my rental agency.


Yesterday they called me. Again. Asking when I would be home so they could pick up their god-forsaken shit boxes. I told them to sod off and not call me again ever since things were already arranged.


If you are using UPC, prepare for more stress caused by UPC then by your entire family dying right in front of you if you ever try to cancel it and if you live in Ireland and are looking for a solid internet connection, stay the hell away from the company UPC.

Back in the saddle

So, some of you (all 2 of you that I think reads this :P) have probably noticed that I stopped posting here...
I could come up with a bunch of excuses for this, work being crazy, preparing to move back home to Denmark and tons of other reasons, but the truth is it the inspiration simply has not been there. I run this post as my own little sanctuary so if I don't have anything to write down well.... nothing will be written down.

But, today I do have something to post about. This weekend, Assembly 2011 was run in Finland, a large media-arts convention that over the years have grown into a central avenue for E-sports, in particular this years Starcraft 2 tournament, bringing some of Europe's best players together for a weekend of challenges and matches. I had the immense pleasure of watching this being streamed live by Total Biscuit and co-commentated by Starcraft 2 E-sports player, dApollo. I highly recommend checking out TBs Youtube channel by the way, he is incredibly entertaining, even if you aren't that interested in video games. Check him out at http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut

Well, that was kind of a long-winded introduction to what I actually wanted to talk about, critique. We've all felt the harsh sting of truth when people tell us we suck at something and we've all felt the desire to defend ourselves.
However, looking at the chat during the livestream, I saw too many damn idiots complaining that this and that player "sucked".
Now sucking at something is an objective statement. Either one is good at something or one is not, so I consider it odd that people, who for one reason or another, wants to denigrate others in this fashion. What is it about success that makes people so keen to criticize others? Stephano, a world class SC2 player does not suck. Do you know how I know this? Because he plays the damn game in an environment where the top prize is 8000 Euro. A massive sum of money for a weekends dedicated gaming.
And yet, both him and so many others are often named as crap players.

 I suck at Starcraft 2 miltiplayer. Do you know why? Because I've played all of 3 matches in total, none of which I won. The people who play Tennis, soccer, paint or play video games at such an incredible level that they are often capable of making a living out of it, does not, in any sense of the term, suck at what they do.

What is it about humans that makes us so incapable of accepting the success of our peers? Is it some vague aspiration to elevate ourselves above all others? Or simply a desire to lash out at anyone that could be construed as superior at something. I don't know, but this problem flourishes to a dangerous degree on the internet, where you can criticize someone as much as you want, using as many personal insults as you desire simply because no one is going to bother confronting you about it.

Why can't you asshats just accept the simple fact that these people are about a billion times better than you will ever be? By all means, comment on their gameplay "I think he is having a bad day" or "He really is not playing very well today". These statements at least acknowledge the fact that yes, they are normally extremely capable individuals, rather than simply bashing them for not doing things like you would.
And always keep in mind, whether it is a soccer match, an artist creating a painting, or an E-sports tournament player in League of Legends, it is always much easier for us as observers to get a full picture. This is not the case for the person sitting in front of the PC, running on the field or going through the thought process of choosing the correct colour.

It's easy being a critic. And even easier to be a complete fucking asshat with no reason to exist. Be the former, not the later.

See you all on the bounce.

There and Back again - a round trip of Ireland

June 8th, 2011

So I'm sitting here at a webcafe because my silly computer won't do as I tell it to, as usual. As some of you may know, I have taken on a little trip around Ireland, following the coast and going straight through the centre of Ireland before returning back down to Cork. Pictures will follow at a later date, my time here is pretty limited.

I started out seeing Killarney and the national park around it, will see more tomorrow. Initially I went for a trip to Ross Castle and the Yew Woods in the area, as well as a boating trip to a small island called Innisfallen. Lovely ruins there, with some amazing landscape shots as I went across the lake.

For the time being I will rest my sore legs, get some dinner and head back to the B&B for a good nights sleep. More updates will follow in the days to come.

Life is a funny thing sometimes

I travel by bus to get home from work every day. This means that I get to see a fair few different people getting on and off. Last week though, was a very interesting spectacle. The bus stops, as usual and a bunch of people get on, but one man, very old and feeble-looking simply stands there, helplessly looking at the door. The driver, being a good sort gets out and offers to help the old man in, but he simply shakes his head.

Moments later, a 20-something year old girl walks up to the bus. With crutches. As the driver stands to the side scratching his head (and most of us passengers sitting inside grinning like idiots), the old, feeble, weak man proceeds to lift the girl inside. Not help her you see, actually grab her by the hips and lift her inside like she barely weighs more than a bag of groceries. He then moves to the rear seats, completely ignoring the girl as she tries to sit down in an empty seat, with a bit of help from yours truly.

Arrogant bastard, retired superhero or just life being its own silly self? You decide. Me, I got some more user accounts to set up.


See ya all on the bounce.

Learning to live addon-free

A few weeks ago, I participated in a very interesting discussion in guild chat in Rift. The topic was the use of meters and, by extension, other addons to improve your ability in the game.

One of the reasons I abandoned WoW was the fact that the core game was no longer considered playable. Only through the use of a dozen or more addons, did people consider the game enjoyable and playable.

Obviously this was not the case, WoW is an incredibly sturdy and well-designed game, addons were never meant to replace features to the extent that they have done and due to the popular addon-culture that have sprung up, I suspect too many people have started to rely on addons to play the game for them.

Threat meters, dps meters, ability warnings from bosses, all of these serve to reduce your own need to learn how to play and increases your reliance on features that aren't normally part of the game (ie, features which can and will be lost for various reasons from time to time). A dangerous practice at best since it created a generation of "hardcore" (read: useless) raiders who, when taken away from their precious addons, failed so hard that it gave George Washington a headache.

Having played MMOs for as long as I have, I have learnt, to a certain extent, how to "read" a game. All games give you subtle clues regarding your ability compared to others, but it takes time, dedication and a willingness to stand up and say "ok, I suck at this part of the game" to find them.
Unfortunately most people will, rather than admit this and work to improve themselves, simply go "this game sucks for not telling me this, I want an addon."

If the game does not tell you explicitly how you are doing, then you need to watch your companions, your guildies and random group members more closely, see what rotations you use and which does that job faster, check to see that your tank rotation reliably keeps the mob on you, as opposed to someone else.
Depending on your role, the signs are different and can be quite hard to spot, but trust me when I say they are there.

Are add-ons inherently evil? No, far from it, but as with so many things, addons need to be carefully monitored and throttled, both by the community and by the developers. Large numbers of addons create a sense that the game is flawed, that it needs these extras in order to function, which is patently untrue.
A fine example is Gear Score. At it's heart, gear score is simply a tool to let you easily determine what level of gear a player currently has equipped, but due to it's easy of use, it became more, it became a tool to determine a players worthiness to join your group. I won't waste time here describing in how many ways that is wrong, but suffice to say that it (and the automatic dungeon finder that blizz introduced) killed off random pugs as I knew and liked them.

Sometimes the best way to learn a game is to play it, not to let your computer play it for you.

Once again, that's me done babbling. See you all on the far side.

Rifts & Invasion

So, last time I briefly mentioned that Rift has two different uniques features, one of which are souls. 

The other feature you might want to know about, are invasions and rifts. Invasions are a small group of enemies that spawn, either at a Rift or at a planar Foothold (which are created by invasions that destroy the guards in a given area). A single invasion is rarely much of a challenge and can be soloed by any reasonably competent player without too much fuss. Multiple invasions converging on the same location, however, is an entirely different thing. 

The goal of an invasion is to kill NPCs in a quest hub and then create a Foothold, a structure that continually spawns defenders and, rarely, more invasions. Once this is done, all quest NPCs, traders as well as most of the guards either despawn, or are killed so fast that they can't really do anything helpful. 

In the really big areas, a foothold is not a big deal because NPCs are spread out enough that most players can move about without getting into trouble. In a minor camp with a couple of guards and 2-3 quest givers... well, hope you brought your sword along.

Rfits, are an entirely different idea and is part of the core gameplay concept of the game. Rifts are holes in reality, or in MMO-slang, a public quest. Each spawns through a tear in reality and will send out invasion forces on a regular basis. If lots of rifts are open, you get lots of invasions. 

A single Rift is no big deal, and minor ones can be closed by 1-2 players in perhaps 10min or so. A major one however, needs a strong group to finish it and get the best rewards. 

Raid and Expert level rifts are even more difficult, for obvious reasons.

One thing that is interesting, is that tears are damn near impossible to predict and the invasions they send out are all too happy to gank any and all players that get in their way. While not a big deal usually, it's not uncommon to log out in a camp and then log in the next day, only to find a dozen or more mobs ready to cut you into pieces when you finally load into the zone. 

It takes some getting used to, and since players aren't really allowed to escape from fights in Rift (you get a pretty severe runspeed debuff if a mob hits you in the back), it will guarantee that you log in and then spend the first minute corpse-running and getting clear of the enemies, at least once in a while. For some, that is not really a fun way to spend their time. I personally love it though, makes even logging in a gamble.

Whether or not these 2 (or maybe 3) features are enough to keep Rift going is something we will just have to wait and see. For now though, I can only recommend it if you are looking for a new hotbar-style fantasy MMO.

That's me done for now, see ya all on the far side!

Your soul is MINE!

So, been playing around with Rift since the release and I'm really liking it so far, graphic style is far enough away from WoW that it doesn't feel too much like a rehash, despite Rift stealing with every limb and then some from WoW and other toolbar-style MMOs.

Rift is a bit short on unique features, but the 2 that are there, are exceptionally unique. Souls and Invasions/Rifts are both game features that can have a fairly drastic effect on your gameplay.
Souls create a very convincing illusion of freedom, by allowing you to design your own class, rather than selecting from a dozen pre-made ones. The concept goes that as you grow in power you gain access to the souls of masters of different ways of combat, from Paladins to Marksmen, Chloromancers and Bards. In total there are some 30 souls, spread over 4 classes. Warriors are melee, either tank or DPS, Rogues are either ranged DPS, tank (yes, really) or melee DPS, Clerics are healer/dps/tank, with mages focussing on DPS, but with a healer soul as well.
The concept is such that you can pick 3 souls at a time and then put your talents points in each as you please. This means you have far more choice in creating your character than most games, but in essence it turns out into the same few things, Melee DPS, Tank, ranged DPS or healer. Some are bows, some use 2-handers, some use 2 weapons at the same time, all stick pretty boringly to the old formular.
Most classes have a few abilities that show off their own speciality, Champion (my own spec) deals with 2-handed weapons and so have several abilities that take a while to fire off, but do a ton of damage in a very small space of time (so far I'm enjoying the combination of guaranteed crit + 6-target AOE (7-800 damage per target), with a follow up ability on attacks that crit. Very nice combo.

The game is good, mechanics work (although the current world event could have benefitted from another week or so of dedicated QA work) and the graphics, even on a relatively mediocre laptop like mine, are very nice indeed. I'm just a bit fed up with the WoW/EQ2 formular, especially with all the ranting regarding addons that WoW has caused.

I'll elaborate on my own position regarding add-ons soon, since we see so many discussions on the subject popping up in Rift, but next up for dissection - Rifts! Do they screw you over, or spice up the gameplay?

For now though, I'm off once again, fair travels and remember, shit may stink, but on the world wide web no one can smell you.

Character Bio: Aranen

Once again, here comes a character from my gaming past, this time from a long-dead MMO called The Matrix Online. MxO for short, this was the continuation of the story from the much-loved (and hated) Matrix triology.

Aranen was the first character I created in MxO and the only one I ever got to a decent level. He was a bit of an all-rounded, more than capable of beating anyone down, but also capable of using the MxO crafting system, giving him the ability to "code" new clothes, weapons and abilites as needed.

He died a sad death, cut down in his prime along with the rest of the servers population when MxO, one of the most unique MMOs out there, was eventually closed down.

As for his storyline? Here it comes, hope you enjoy it...

Martin never felt at ease in the city, always finding things he thought was wrong. He understood the differences between good and evil, but felt that somehow they should not apply in the ways that they did. In short, he was an anarchist. He rarely spent much time with others, preferring to stay indoors and learn the ways of computers. Eventually he stumbled on a secret word, a word hidden in the internet itself. The Matrix.

From there he sought out all references he could find and eventually came to the conclusion that the Matrix was something so vast he could never comprehend it alone.

During this time Zion had reached an agreement with the Machines and had been allowed to recruit those among the population that were ready to be awakened. Taken from his apartment in the dead of the night, Martin was given the chance to experience where good and evil no longer applied in the ways he was used to, a world where anything was possible... 

As the effects of the red pill rushed through his systems, he died and was reborn. The skilled systems hacker Martin died and the Zion freedom fighter, Aranen, was born. 

Why I play games

I am a bit of a loner in my family, being the only person I'd class as anywhere near "gamer", (although my sisters fiancée is close). So when I talk to them, it can be a tad hard to find a subject to discuss at times, since their hobbies rarely match mine.

One of the questions I've encountered, not just in my family, but from others as well is "Why do you play games so much?"

A fair question, and one that is kind of hard to answer in a short time.
Games, at their core, is the same as other forms of entertainment. Music, films, cartoons, books and so forth all strive to tell a story. To let the player experience a story from the viewpoint of one or more characters.
A well-written book or great film can move people, can induce emotions and explain things in ways that are difficult to do in conversations.

Games take this a step further. Games allow the player to create their own stories, through the medium. No game is ever truly the same. Even the simplest games have you ending up with a slightly different ammo count, or one more secret area. Maybe you did this and that in a different order.
Much like films, books and so on, games tell a story. But while a book will only ever tell the same story, and films will only truly surprise you once, games tell your story, not that of others. And it always changes, through your own actions.

Some games allow you to control everything, creating the world and your story however you want (Minecraft), while others have a limited place for you to move about in (Doom).
Either type of game is unique, and so each playthrough is slightly different than the others.

Games, to me, are a way of passing the time, of experiencing things I can never do in real life and, most crucially, of letting me create a story about myself that is unlike any other.


I am Changrey, I am a gamer.

See ya all on the bounce.

Darkness called, but I wasn't home so he left me a message

If you get the above quote, I salute you. If not, go play Warcraft.

It was nice to be back home for Christmas and spend some time with my family. Still unsure about this whole ireland thing due to the burglary, but I'll figure it out as time goes on, I'm in no rush yet.

I've recently discovered a wonderful gem due to the great people at strategycore, Jagged Alliance 2. Squad-based tactical top-down view games are as rare nowadays as a sensible politician so finding one of the old greats is truly a joy, thank you once again GoG. Story goes something like this; country is happy, king is alone. King finds wife.Wife turns evil and tries to kill king. King runs away with the help of underground resistance movement (yeah, cuz helping the king you are rebelling against makes sooo much sense) and flees to other country. Wife (ex-wife now) crowns herself queen and begins regime of horror, death and tyranny. King sits on his ass for a decade or two and then hires 4 idiots to go beat her 10.000 man strong army and kill her.

Yes, you play the 4 (or however many mercenaries you decide to hire) idiots. Great game. Storyline, not quite so much.

In other news, it turns out that I'm a complete idiot (like you didn't know that already). Playing around with knives is dangerous at best. Playing around with knives when other, less lethal, stuff would do the job more so. Playing around with knives you don't need while extremely tired at 3 in the morning on a weekend? Beyond stupid and way into moronic level. Took 2 hours of sitting on my ass with paper wrapped around my finger to stop the bleeding. Yay me.

Cataclysm Launch

Hope everyone out there enjoyed the Cataclysm launch. I was there at the midnight launch, which was pretty tame considering what I've seen in the past, just some 20 geeks lining up nice and orderly while waiting for their Collectors Edition.

What? Yes, of course I got the Collectors, why wouldn't I?

Did have one fun event, when they asked if anyone was there for a regular edition and one little voice in the back went "yes, I am" and then this stupidly cute little chick walks out of the crowd, pays and leaves the shop, with some 20 males staring at her butt (which, to be fair, was beyond amazing).

No pictures, this ain't that kind of blog guys, sorry to disappoint.


Unfortunately I have a very early start each morning so I didn't really have the chance to play except for when I came back from work. After waiting for 2 hours, I finally get in and see a horde of hordies (population on EU-Stormreaver is something on the order of 2-1 in favor of Horde). I then spend around 30min of the next hour running around in ghost form due to the gank-groups running around before I called it quits and logged off.

I'll try again in a few days, see if the new zones calm down a bit.

Character Bio: Kaylie Shianen

Kaylie Shianen was born on a NWN server called Sollice. Like so many others, Sollice was a RPPW - Role Playing persistent World. Think small-scale MMO based on a single server.

She grew quickly, the server being quite friendly to wizards and ended up as one of the most capable characters on the server.
Unfortunately Sollice was not meant to last, and eventually the server and community died out. I took a hiatus from NWN and relaxed until I one day discovered that a number of my old companions from Sollice had found a new home at The Fold, a server that still runs today. Finding a nice way to bring Kaylie into the world, she was ressurected once more, this time on a far more challenging server.

So, after this quick IRL description, sit back and relax while you enjoy the story of Kaylie Shianen, half-elven Wizard in the world of Neverwinter Nights.


Kaylie was born in a forest far from civilization, the child of a human adventurer and one of the regions strongest elven mages. Growing up in a forest, Kaylie showed an appetite for learning and magic that surprised even her elven mother. Unfortunately, the idyllic life of the family was not to last. 


Shoren Erann, a young mage obsessed with obtaining power, sat in deep meditation in the forest. During the last several months he had been haunted by dreams of a monstrous demon, trying to make his way into his world. 
Seeing an opportunity, Shoren went deep into the forest and used his power to tear through reality, creating a rift for the demon lord to move through. Unfortunately, he was unable to contain the sheer power required and it flared out, ripping the physical form of the demon to pieces as it entered. 


Filled with the rage, the demons spirit roared through the forest, killing at random, closely followed by a corterie of demonic servants. In a glade not too far away, the spirit came upon the sleeping form of a half-elven girl, barely into her teens. Sensing the girls potential for power, the demon sent it's minions to capture her. 
Although she fought valiantly, a young girl was simply no match for the sheer speed and ferocity of the demonic hellhounds. Chained to a rock, the demons servants prepared her young form to accept their lords spirit. 


However, they did not get far. From the deepest part of the forest came a human, armored from head to toe, wielding a dual-bladed sword and his companion, a fair elven wizard, to the rescue of their only child. 
Even with the element of surprise however, the pair was unable to win. Sacrificing everything for their daughter, the two combined the power of their very souls and sent a massive blast of energy through the glade, utterly destroying the demons gathering around the young Kaylie. 


Seeing his only hope of survival fading away, the demon lord known only as the Shadow King, sent his own power surging through Kaylies body. Unable to fully possess the young girl, he forced his way and placed a small part of his consciousness deep in her soul. Deprived of all power, the demon hid inside the innocent soul of the young half-elf and waited. He would wait until he had his chance, as his kind had always done...


Several months later, a young woman left the forest and began wandering. Unable to recall her parents, or her age, the woman left the forests that had been her home for well over a decade and began the life of an adventurer. Inside her soul, a raging demon slowly began to influence the damaged mind of Kaylie Shianen. 
He had already grown her body in order to create a woman that men would find irresistible. As time passed, Kaylie would become aware of the demonic presence in her soul and a war unlike any others would be waged until her very death... 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R - No, it's not shorthand for something kinky...

Been having fun the last few days running around in a fresh game of Stalker - Call of Pripyat.
For those not in the know, STALKER is set around Chernobyl, after the nuclear incident. In this game, a 2nd disaster occured that created The Zone, a large area around the Chernobyl NPP in which the laws of physics are more or less told to go sit in the corner.

Call of Pripyat is the third game in the series, and is by far the best game so far. The number of zones is a tad too limited, but instead each zone feels larger than in the previous games.

With a fair weapon selection and a fair challenge, it's a solid choice for a FPS game with free-roam gameplay.

Oh, and a word of warning. Stay away from the Chimera.

Mental preparation

One of the things I've learned through my time in WoW is how much true mental preparation can matter.
Jong, from the Forbearance blog is the master of this art, just go read some random posts from his blog, he's a goddamn genius.

Right before doing something that you know is going to be insanely difficult, take a look in the mirror, smile and say to yourself "I know I can do this. Lets go!"

The above sentence can be diplomatically referred to as male cow leftovers.
The following is not.

I am the most fucking supremely awesome motherfucker this world has ever seen. Anyone even remotely unaware of this will this instant get stabbed by a hundred blind monkeys while angels will fly around them in a circle singing my praises so they understand their failure.

You can either choose from screaming this at the top of your lungs out the window or failing miserably.
Ok, that might have a bit excessive, but the point is that quietly telling yourself you are a good little boy/girl is useless and will never work. Belief, knowledge, moderation and understanding pale in comparison to simply boosting your ego to high heaven.

This will get you the confidence to succeed in just about anything - IF you have the goddamn skillz!
Just my 2 cents for the day.


See ya all on the far side boys and girls!

AoW

Old classics are always fun and to me, Age of Wonders is a beatiful example of a really good classic RTS. Top-down view of your kingdom, lots of fantasy creatures, a slightly cheesy story and a completely brain-dead AI. I recently discovered that Steam had the entire series up for grabs and decided to go for it, so far I haven't regretted it one bit, playing a classic like that again always puts a smile on my face, even if newer players would frown and go "where iz my pl4sm4 sw0rd!" or somesuch.

I'm just happy being able to steamroll a dozen enemy soldiers with a bunch of ballistas again. And some magic.


Oh, and as an aside, a 6x2 stone bridge elevated 15 blocks over sea level in Minecraft looks awesome and ohmygoddoestakesforevertobuild.

Health phail and addiction phail :(

I did it. I reopened my WoW account after more than a year. I feel soiled, but...

Those godforsaken shit eaters have hacked my account!!
Rottengoodfornothingbitchylittleass *grumble grumble*

Apparently lots of fun stuff have been going on, because now I have blizzard riding my ass about selling the account, likely done by whomever hacked it in the first place, most of my gathered crafting materials are gone, but at least Blizzard restored my gear...
Before I opened my account..

No, don't ask. I got no clue either.

Oh yeah, my allergies are acting up at the same time as I've been struggling with a mild dose of "I'm ill, but not ill enough to justifty staying at home", good times all around as you can tell.
Aaaand my roommate is moving back to denmark, so I'm stuck in ireland with a 2-bedroom apartment for one person.



Isn't life great? *runs off to kill something in uncontrolled rage*

Venting!

What is it with people and DM-style multiplayer? What is the fun in rushing some hapless new player 45 seconds after the game has begun? How can anyone seriously derive amusement from that?
I can understand a harrasment tactic, draining the opponents resources and slowing their progress, but amassing a gazillion zerglings/light tanks/infantry and charging in before you've even said hello?

Where is the fun in that?

I rarely bother with online multiplayer against humans because, quite frankly, most humans can kiss my ass. If I'm playing a strategy game the last thing I want to experience is some pre-pubescent little brat scream at me through their headset while rushing my workers with a bajillion scouts (and then proceed to trash-talk my mother), after 5min of playtime.

I mean, I understand that it's a viable strategy, but how can anyone seriously gain any enjoyment from that? All you get is a shallow idea of "Ha, I built my worker 0.002 microseconds before he did". How can anyone seriously translate that into being skilled at a game? If you let me amass a huge army, reach the population cap and then proceed to ambush and utterly annihilate my army without loosing a single unir, then kudos to you and thank you for a good game.

If you race your starting units and a couple of soldiers into my base before I've loaded the game? Go die in a fire. Repeatedly. Until you are forever gone, along with your entire genetic heritage.

WoW: Cataclysm

How many out there are WoW players? I know there are about 12 million active subscribers right now, but even so.
How many follows the new talent trees? I quit the game close to a year ago and was actually pretty sure I was done with it, but some of new retribution stuff has me intrigued. The idea of loosing Consecration is not quite the big point that it seems to be for some. Most WotLK fights required too much movement for it to be truly awesome anyway, even if it was a decent DPS boost.

As you can probably imagine, I used to be a retri player and likely will always be so, one of the few that would welcome a more thought-based rotation rather than the prio we had. More power to the Holy Power I say, as long as it proves balanced.
One of the biggest troubles with Retri has always been the combination of bubbleburst, the act of demolishing one player with a huge level of burst, Holy Power seems to play to that strength (the idea of Templars Verdict at 3 holy power with AW active scares the crap out of me).

I'm not currently playing, but I may end up rebooting my account, just to see what it's like. Not too keen on Cataclysm still, but maybe playing through the patches until it's released will give me a better impression, we'll see.
Cant really say I had any real point to make here, just thought i'd throw it into the world.

See ya on the bounce boys and girls.

Living abroad

It's funny how two countries that are, basically, part the same european culture can be so radically different and yet similar.

Ireland are basically what you would expect from a european country, with all the "civilized" concepts (stores, electricity etc.) well within reach. And at the same time, the roads are absolutely tiny, fast food is like a religion, people are preaching on the street and getting a decent boradband connection is like getting to third base with a supermodel, exciting to talk about and well worth bragging about when you actually get it, but completely unrealistic for 99.9% of your life.

Living here is an interesting experience. Even though I'm used to the language and it's not a major cultural difference, it's kinda interesting as time passes and you spot all the little differences.
The roads here are terrible, and yet if you see more than 2-3 bikes in a single day you can consider yourself lucky, no one uses them here. Compare that to Denmark where if you see less than 20 it's a slow day.
Food is much the same, but with a few tiny differences, such as the availability of certain ingredients - Ireland imports like 80% of everything it consumes so seasons and such don't apply in quite the same manner, everything has been frozen and thawed a dozen times over by the time it gets to the stores here anyway.


That's my weekly observation done with, I'll see you guys on the far side.

Who needs friends when you have Minecraft?

I recently dug an old friend out of the big ol' world of the interwebz called Minecraft (http://www.minecraft.net/).

This game is, in all it's simplicity, the best outlet for creative gameplay that you will find anywhere. Gameplay is quite simple, you use your hands to beat down a tree, which you turn into sticks that can be turned into a wooden axe which can then be used to gather rocks, earth and so on, ending with you sitting a billion miles underground desperately trying to mine that last block of diamond before the zombies find a way around your cunningly crafted trap filled with lava. And then your pickaxe breaks leaving you alone in the darkness with monsters coming from every hole.

Sounds simple doesn't it? Would it help if I told you that people have used the system to create everything from the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower and a frickin' Star Destroyer. To Scale.

Me? I'm busy building my 3-story wooden house with built-in lava heating system under the floor, should be an interesting challenge. For starters anyways.

However, before embarking on a journey of self-discovery through the world of Minecraft, be warned...

This game is the destroyer of social lives