My buddy JP finally called me back last night. He has a habit of disappearing for months at a time, not answering phones, emails, or IMs. Back in college, he wouldn’t even answer the door if we went to his apartment. Evidently, he’s been hitting the books hard to get a Cisco cert. So, at least he’s not dead.
He brought up the idea of a paintball excursion. I’m totally down with that. I’m going to get with the gang and see who else wants to go.
“A common pattern we saw in the text mud days was MUD burnout. A mudder would enter the community, and get badly hooked on a game, often after sampling a few. The one they would get hooked on would almost certainly be the one where they “clicked†with other people who were around — be they friends who brought them in, or new friends. Then they’d play obsessively for a while.
But usually, they would drop out — not of the game, of the entire hobby after a few years, usually two or so. Other games would pale. Either they’d move on to work on making or running a mud, or exit altogether. The percentage of diehards who played for years and years and years really was fairly small.”
He is talking about me. My friends all played Faerun.com, so I joined in. We played for probably 2 years hard-core, then I got tired and quit. I tried UO and other MMORPGs, even other MUDs, but they paled in comparison to the first. I tried coding my own, still have the source to most of my attempts, but without my friends helping, it always fails.
So, the real winner in the MMO market is the one who can snare me and retain me. Pre-CU SWG was that way for a while, but my friends got bored with it and left, so I left. That means they’ll also have to snare and retain my friends. WoW has them now, but I just can’t get into that. I think I need a bit more of a sandbox.
http://revision3.com/ctrlaltchicken/chickencordonbleu/
Ctrl+Alt+Chicken is out. Alex Albrecht is funny good stuff. Heather, the other half of the show, is Alex’s famed girlfriend. She does a great job, too. Editing is good. The first episode could have probably used a little more work on the culinary side, but the more cooking they do, I’m sure it’ll all come together.
L-dog found some info on pre-compiled food items. Basically, it’s like $5 for all of the ingredients for one meal for 2 or 3. We’re going to try a couple of them and see how economical and easy it is.
What I’d like to see is a cooking show that shows you what to buy at the store for enough meals for 2 weeks, then how to cook with all of the stuff. Easy and economical being the keywords.
Laura snagged a copy of the new Blue October album “Foiled”. They’re a great band from Houston. They give great live performances, or at least used to. The last couple that I’ve been to haven’t been as good as the earlier ones. Still good stuff.
The verdict? Thirteen (with a hidden 14th) tracks. Of those, there are 6 that are good. Of those 6, there are 3 or 4 that are great. They finally released “You Make Me Smile”, a song that they’ve been doing since the first time I saw them (back in ‘99 or ‘00), but never laid down in the studio. The album version is a bit disappointing if you’ve heard the earlier live performances, but it’s not bad. “Into The Ocean” is a lyric-filled gem that actually reminds me a bit of Death Cab. “Hate Me” is their single, and is good on the same level as their last single “Calling You”. It’s not classic Blue, but it’s catchy and fun. Overweight is the best on the album. I’d put it near the top of the list of best Blue songs. The rhythm makes you bounce, it’s got soul (complete with backup singers), and is bound to be a crowd pleaser sing-along. “X Amount Of Words” is the “Come In Closer” of this album. It’s the techno-beat disco dance track. Good, but not great. “Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek” is shades of “James” and “Somebody”. Hard, yet still soft.
The album moves in the same direction as History For Sale, which felt like a bit of a departure from The Answers and Consent To Treatment. I think Justin’s gotten over alot of the stuff that made the first two albums good. We joked after the last album that Justin got a girlfriend and everything turned into flowers and puppies. This album’s just as upbeat, but it feels like the sharp “flowers and puppies” edge is dulled a bit. I’m down with the album, but think that they should come back with a hard hitting, dressed-in-black, Smiths-meets-Pantera album next.
Edit: I just realized what Overweight reminded me of…Balance Beam. Good stuff.
SOE is launching a free version of their MMOFPS Planetside soon. In the article I saw, they’re allowing you to reach “battle rank 6″. This is a good way to market the genre. Single-player games give the players a chance to play the first level or two in the demo. It gives enough of a taste to see if they like the game, but not enough to get too deep into it. Anarchy Online’s method gives you the full game, but no expansions. While that’s cool, too, it doesn’t give a big incentive to pay. By the time you’ve exhausted your free play, you’re a pretty good way through the game. Imagine, all you WoW players, if you could only play up to level 10. That’s like 4-5 hours of play time. You get a good taste, but just enough to get you hungry for more.
Brain-building games for the DS…including Soduku.
Real quick, word around the campfire is that the next Nintendo console (Revolution, Go, ???) will emulate the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx. My brother and I sold our Nintendo for a Genesis instead of going the Super Nintendo route. I always liked those games better. And I always wanted a TurboGrafx. I forgot what games I had my eye on, but they always looked good.
Also, word is that the Nintendo DS will get a Zelda game.
It’s hard for me to sit and play games anymore. Either I’m developing ADD, the games just don’t cut it for me anymore, or both. I’d love to just sit and play through a cool game, but the fact is that if I’m not blown away in the first hour or two that I play, then I’m not going to invest my time. The Riddick game and Full Spectrum Warrior for XBox did that for me a couple of years ago, but I haven’t found anything since. I really want to try the 24 game. I think I could get into that one.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146555.html
Austin is one of the premier spots for great MMORPG development. Origin (Ultima Online) was there, SOE is there, and now, Bioware is there. What does Raph’s departure mean? Well, first it means that SOE will continue to go downhill. I don’t know if Raph was tired of bailing water or if he just missed designing. Either way, it could spell good news.
Could Raph be heading for Bioware Austin? They’re making a new MMORPG and he would be the perfect captain along side his cohort Rich Vogel. Despite the sinkhole that SWG has become, I think the two of them made a good team. I’d really like to see them team up with some hard-hitting industry vets and really innovate the genre. Richard Garriot and Brad McQuaid are busy trying to release their own games, but they would also be part of the MMORPG Dev Dream Team. Throw in Damion Schubert on some PvP design and get Will Wright in there for some sandbox and meta-game love. One of two things would come out of those design meetings: the next King of MMORPGs or bodybags. Either way, I’d love to be a part of that. Whadda ya say, Ray Muzyka?
In any case, I’m interested to hear about it from the horse’s mouth. What’s up next, Raph?
iTunes is an unexplainable phenomenon. It simultaneously sucks and blows, resulting in a void of negative energy that drains the life force from anything that draws near. Not only are the orginization features counter-intuitive, it crashes about 20% of the time when watching video podcasts. I’m sure that it probably has something to do with my laptop, but still…
That’s old news, though. The new news is that I got a new phone this weekend. FYI, I am not a big cellphone fan. Today’s phones try to pack so many features into them that they miss the true nature of the device. I would love to hear from anybody who uses their phone’s camera for anything. The quality is too low to be truly useful and they have yet to implement true video phone capabilities. Browsing the web is rediculous on such tiny screens and slow speeds. Not only that, but you have to pay more just to browse the web in this horrible way. Using it as a media player is also rediculous due to the tiny storage capacities and bad interfaces.
That said, I use my phone for voice conversations…what it’s meant for. I searched high and low for a good phone that just did its job without trying to pose as any other device. I believe I may have found just such a device.
The wife had snagged a blue RAZR at a CompUSA for cheap. They gave her the discounts for the phone and all it required was a 12-month extended contract. I have been in need of a new phone for some time since mine’s joystick control had stopped going up or left. Not only that, it was starting to drop calls and buttons were sticking causing misdials. After she got her phone, CompUSA did another deal on 2 different phones: the Motorola PEBL and the TMobile SDA (HTC Tornado). So, we went to check them out this weekend. I was very underimpressed with the PEBL and its cheap, fragile feel. The SDA, however, was another story.
It’s a candybar-style phone that’s milimeters larger than my T610. It’s got a large, crisp screen, charges via mini-USB plug, and feels very sturdy. The best features, however, are that it runs Windows Mobile Smartphone and has built-in Bluetooth and WiFi. Yes, WiFi (802.11b). That means that it has a decent web browser AND can connect for FREE (at an access point)! Verdict: 9/10.
I docked it one point because it was damn near impossible to sync via Bluetooth and the only way to sync contacts and calendar are through Outlook. I’m still searching for a way to sync using my TBird address book, but I’ll probably have to start using Outlook again. TBird’s RSS feeds, email, and recently-released Lightning calendar plugin would be near perfect if they could sync. Oh well.
Oh, and if you haven’t heard of Orb, check them out (www.orb.com). You install it on your media PC and it allows you to stream your content to any device over the network. I was watching my freakin ReplayTV shows on my WiFi-connected cell phone! Brilliant! Not that I’m actually that mobile, but it’s just cool to have! Next, I want to try to get home automation going (at least for a couple of lights).
http://www.kevinrose.com
Kevin posted an “audioblog” where he chats about where he thinks Google is going. He brings up the GDrive rumor that is going around where Google will store files for you. He says that Google will try to integrate all of their web apps (Google Desktop, GTalk, GMail, Picasa, Writely, Google Earth, etc) with GDrive being at the heart of it all. He also says that you’ll be able to easily grab that information from the GDrive on-the-go.
That’s all an interesting concept, but the web still isn’t available everywhere. You have to rely on a WiFi access point or shell out mad cash for a 3G cellular data network connection. This method just isn’t feasible for the common man. Sure, there are rumors that Google is helping put free WiFi in San Fransisco, but that doesn’t do a lick of good to me in North Dallas, Texas.
I know a little about the power of integration, though. It is one of the 3 words in our company name and hence one of our primary design elements. Being able to access any of your data from anywhere and have interoperability between applications is a huge selling feature. It is one that Microsoft and Apple have had in place for a while. MS Office suite, and Windows Mobile/Pocket PC are good examples. As are iCal, iChat, iPhoto, iTunes, and the iPod. They are multiple apps where data can float between seamlessly. Nothing new. We’ll see how it turns out, though, because I could definately see this happening.
