Sierra Kilo

So it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Life has taken its toll on one of my creative outlets. I’ve found that sometimes it takes too long to write something meaningful and organize my thoughts. Even my Twitter-ing has slowed. Anyway, on to the post.

So the iPhone 3G comes out next week (11th). I won’t be busting the door down, but I plan on purchasing one shortly after the release (probably over that weekend). While I like the customizability of my WinMo T-Mobile Wing, I’ve found that it is a bit slow and cumbersome. I like the fact that I can write .Net applications for it, but I’ve only written a few and hardly use them. Plus, the one I use the most, I’ve basically rewritten as a JavaScript web-app anyway. I’m sure I’ll use the web browser a bit, but I’m curious about how I’ll use the iPod functionality and how quickly the GPS novelty wears off. Geocaching will be fun and I might create a few caches myself initially. Geotagging pictures is an interesting concept, but, honestly, who’s interested in exactly where I take pictures? I’ll probably watch my podcasts on it, maybe audiobooks, but I love my 60GB iPod for carrying my music. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is on order with Amazon and so far is looking like August for shipping The wife and I played with a coworker of hers and his wife over the weekend and had a good time. I DM’d 2nd Edition for the first time in probably 10 years. My descriptive skills need a little work, but I was able to wing it pretty well with a dungeon I threw together sometime in college (about 10 years ago). For the 4th Edition game, I might put a good interwoven plot together. Laura played a tree-hugging druid, but I think she’d get more out of playing a slightly-evil rogue (my favorite, too). It’s so much fun to cause strife in an imaginary environment when you have to be so good in real-life.

I also installed Vista Ultimate on my “server” box at home. I wanted to play with the Media Center Extender functions with my XBox 360. So far it’s crashed a couple of times and rebooted itself (probably driver issues). I see why the Vista Nanny is getting so much press. As the saying goes, “At least she’s pretty.”

So, after the kid was sick, the wife was sick, I was sick, trying to catch up on work, prepping and stressing for daughter’s upcoming Cochlear Implant surgery, falling behind on mowing the lawn and watering plants, etc. I find that the site’s been down for a week. It looks like everything’s back up and maybe the well-oiled machine will continue to churn after all.

Isn’t this exactly the concept of what I’ve been touting? I’m glad to see somebody gets what I’m putting out there. Now, if there was only a game with this technology that I wanted to play…

I think the biggest news is the new Netflix player device. It allows you to view movies and TV shows from Netflix’s “Watch Now” collection on your TV. If you already have a Netflix account, the $100 device isn’t a large leap. There are 10,000 or so movies and TV series available. Unfortunately, I only have about 15 movies that I am interested in watching from that collection. I’m sure I could force myself to watch a few others, and I could continue Earth 2 instantly instead of getting the DVDs, but I’m currently satisfied. This might be a great option, however, for my parents. The $9/month plan allows one DVD at a time (all you can eat, but only one plate at a time), but gives you access to the “Watch Now” content through this device. HDMI output makes it simple to hook up to an HDTV for sound and video and it sounds like future HD content is on the way (although B-movies aren’t much better in HD, so hopefully they’ll get some higher-caliber content, too).

My brain is entering imagination time again. Here are the latest thought pellets: space colonization (recurring), alternate-reality steampunk, and parkour. In the shower this morning, I started imagining a story where an ex-military factory worker is woken by the door to his humble (Fifth Element-esque) apartment being busted in by government agents. He instinctively flees (parkour-style) through the dystopian city, enlisting his ex-military buddies and trying to figure out why the government is after him. Maybe I’ll actually start writing more of these ideas down one of these days.

…before jumping into things at work:

Laura broke my XBox 360 by trying to watch Disney’s Enchanted (now with “FastPlay” technology). A few seconds into the movie, it froze up. Subsequent reboots resulted in the dreaded “Red Ring Of Death“. Microsoft support was very eager to send me packing supplies, repair my problem, give me a month of XBox Live, give me another 90 day warranty on the repaired box, and give me a 3 year warranty against the “Red Ring Of Death”. So, we’ll be without a downstairs DVD player and no CoD4 or Rock Band for 3-4 weeks as we wait for the repair. I guess we’ll have to live with the Wii for games. I’ve been enjoying some Super Mario Brothers on 50 inches, though. It’s amazing how much you remember from back in the day. My brother-in-law remembered more than I did, though. He made it to the last level thanks to the secret warp zones.

I’m still waiting for that Mac Mini update to come along. It has been 281 days since the last update and the average time between updates is only 188 days, so it’s due. A processor, memory, and hard drive bump are all I’m asking for. A graphics bump that allows dual screens wouldn’t be bad, either. I’m anxious to set one up to handle podcast viewing, torrent downloads, webcam monitoring (I know that dog has parties when we’re not there), some DVR functions, checking weather, browsing the web, and handling some server-type tasks. Eventually, I’d like to set up some home automation functions for scheduling exterior lights and remotely controlling other lights (like turning on entry light via instant messenger so we don’t walk into a dark house). It’s always fun to tinker with stuff like that and it seems to be much easier on a Mac thanks to AppleScript.

I haven’t been playing much of Mythos, but I read the other day that they’re going to make it more MMORPG-y than it currently is. This might be to help differentiate them more from Dungeon Runners. There will be less instancing in common areas, allowing for players to interact more. I also hope they put some downtime activities in such as fishing, mining, farming, etc. As fun as it is to loot dungeons, I’d like to participate in the economy and display trophies (largest fish caught, largest melon grown, etc), too.

We’ve also been busy with Eleanor’s implantation. Research, tests, meetings, therapy, etc. She’s a smart little rascal and she’s a handful. We are usually running around chasing her, playing, learning, or feeding when we’re not working. We’re hoping all goes well with insurance and we can do the implants in August after our family reunion. Fingers crossed.

Is it just me, or does Massively’s article on social networking in MMOs sound a little like APG? Having a Wiki integrated into the game sure sounds like Web 2.0. Integrating existing social elements such as instant messaging is such a great idea, I’m surprised it hasn’t been done more often, and in the more popular MMOs. I don’t exactly see what integrating Twitter would add, other than having the game notify you that an in-game event happened (such as a plot-related “The redcoats are coming!” event, an interactive object “Ding-dong! Someone just rang your doorbell” event, or an automated “Your harvester is full” event). Having web-based interaction would be a great feature, though, as I’ve said before.

By way of my brother: Ken Levine And Co. At Work On New X-Com Game?

One big problem with this is that the best X-COM game was a turn-based strategy/action game. In today’s fast-paced gaming, turn-based strategy games don’t do so well. Why would 2k do a game like that? Or are they just going to use the brand? We shall see…

Massively is a pretty good gaming site. The only problem is that there are a ton of posts each day and only a few have some meat. They had an article on crafting in Mythos that I found interesting, especially since I tried and enjoyed it this weekend. I’m not sure why the “complexity through simplicity” aspect of Mythos is so appealing to me, but crafting is an example of that. Once you have found a crafting recipe and gathered the ingredients, you can create the item. Enhancing the item’s properties increases the failure rate. Dead simple, fun, and engaging. A couple of things are missing from Mythos, however. First, I felt like I was playing a single-player hack-and-slash game (a bit like Gauntlet). I didn’t get much of the multi-player aspect. Second, a sense of permanency was missing. With so many items to collect, I couldn’t actually collect them because my inventory would fill up. Player housing would be a great addition (either that or a Dungeon Siege-like pack mule). Last, I felt no connection to the world. Why was I there? Why was I doing quests (other than money and XP)? Who am I, where am I?

The other good Massively article today asked “Is narrative important?” I say yes. That’s part of what’s missing from Mythos (n) : a story or set of stories relevant or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group; anything delivered by word of mouth: a word, speech, conversation, or similar; a story, tale, or legend, especially a poetic tale. Maybe I just missed it? I like the game, but I like to be a part of my MMORPGs. I want to live the life of my character in that world. I understand Mythos isn’t exactly for roleplayers, but it could at least have some grand story (like trying to defeat Diablo and free the land from oppression or something).

Despite all of that, I’d really like to play a little more Mythos…maybe even tonight. Maybe I’ll LFG and see how the multi-player side of things is?

…not the SNL-variety.

Friday, a friend and I went to see Rush in concert. It was great! Being in their mid-50’s, they held up very well for nearly 3 hours! They played most of the classics and the best songs from their latest, Snakes and Arrows. Limelight, Freewill, Dreamline, Subdivisions, Tom Sawyer, 2112…all rediculously good. Neil Peart played a 6+ minute drum solo, followed up by Alex Lifeson playing Hope on a 12-string. I can now say that I’ve seen one of the two bands I’ve wanted to see live…next up, Pink Floyd (when pigs fly?).

I got a little time to game, too. I’d been meaning to get on Dungeon Runners and Mythos for a bit and try to figure out what the difference was They’re both Diablo-esque hack-and-slashers. I found myself playing Mythos more. Maybe it’s the Diablo roots, but it just felt more familiar and fun. I wasn’t a big Diablo player, but I liked the idea of socketed items and item rarity. The RPG elements are all there as well as the skill tree. I’m playing a Gadgeteer, which is actually pretty fun. I’m using a shotgun-like musket and sending my little homing spider bombs to collect kills. There are plenty of quests and they’re nice and short. One could hop on for 15 minutes and complete a quest or two. So far, however, I’m missing the MMO part of it. Sure, I see a few people running around the common-area cities and see a bunch of text in the chat window, but it’s felt like a completely single-player experience. Maybe it’s the instanced dungeons? Mythos seems well suited for Achievers with a little for Explorers. As an EASK, it’s not completely lost on me. I would like to see more roleplaying and social elements. Owning a home and defending the city from an invasion would be a great way to give the player a sense of belonging and camaraderie. The crafting quests were slightly fun. More downtime activities could fill the roleplaying void.

Games:
With all of the MMORPGs being developed, why isn’t there one that I really want to play? Granted, there are a couple who have not released enough information (I’m looking at you Bioware and 38 Studios), but from what’s known, I’m a little disappointed in the future of the genre. One player in my disappointment is the lack of console MMOs (specifically XBox 360). I can jump into a CoD4 frag-fest and play for an hour or so in the evening. I’d rather play from my comfy couch in 720p on my 50″ TV than in the upright chair in the confines of my office. Maybe XBox Live is to blame? Is it not possible to develop an MMORPG for that console? Playstation 3 has their virtual world “Home” coming out soon, so it’s not impossible for that platform. It’s not the control scheme. With the chatpad attachment, it would be easy enough to map actions to keys rather than having to navigate menus with the controller.

Right now, I am actually looking forward to Stargate Worlds. It looks like it might be very interesting. I might even be able to get the wife to play with me. Earthrise and Fallen Earth are also intriguing (I’ve been following FE forever). Still, none to be played in my living room

D&D 4th Edition: Pen-and-paper WoW? I happen to like 2nd Edition AD&D best, but the online component to 4e looks interesting. D&D seems to use much less imagination lately, though. With all of the miniatures, rules simplification (yet complication due to the multitude of extra sourcebooks), and multi/prestige/hybrid classes, D&D seems much less about roleplaying and more about gaming. I’m interested to play a 4e game on “D&D Game Day” and read the rules, though.

Gadgets:
No updated Mac Mini yet. By the time they update it, I’ll probably be over the whole Mac in the living room thing.

The Goods:
Hellboy 2 looks much better than the original. Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth comes through a little, which is cool.

Yesterday was my 31st birthday. I celebrated Office Space-style. I did nothing! I watched TV, played games, and that was it. I had grand plans to wash the car, but news of rain stayed my hand.

I played Call of Duty 4, mostly. I gained a few levels and opened up a few new weapons and equipment. I thought about hopping on Dungeon Runners or Mythos, but never got around to it. In hindsight, there were a few other things I would have liked to do, too, but didn’t think of at the time. None would have broken up my day of doing nothing.

I saw a show last night about the 2007 Solar Decathlon. It was very interesting. I love the prospect of modular housing and wish it were more widely accepted. Many modern technologies are modular and upgradeable, so why aren’t homes? If my computing needs call for more memory, I can slap a new stick of RAM in my PC. I’d love to see a neighborhood in my area of North Dallas that consists of modular houses. The area is fairly progressive and tech-savvy, so it would probably do well. SIPs, recycled/renewable materials, energy efficiency, and smart home technologies are something I’d love to have in my house. If I could easily slap on an extra room in about a week for a few bucks, I’d be all about it. All I’d need is some land and money, I guess…