Thursday, September 30, 2010

Playing with blocks...

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. With games that is no different and with Minecraft I've been playing with blocks. Now there is an online Alpha version at the main site and a first draft version here.

The alpha (main link) is a multiplayer version and has things like saving builds. The first draft is just a single player with no saving. It's been fun to mess around with since I'm waiting till the product is more finalized before deciding to buy.

The basic thing to do in the single player game is build things and explore. So far I've built three houses and have done some serious cave diving in to the earth to the point where I found lava. I also ended up flooding one cave with the water I captured for my swimming pool from the ocean.

NOTE: You will need Java installed to run the game in your web browser.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Six Years

Someone said it in Tawa chat yesterday, "Six years playing WoW." My first thought was, "Damn, they're right. It's almost six years come November." So I did some thinking and thought of what I got out of six years of playing WoW.

Over the past six years I've met and hung out with some really great people. My social life has revolved more around online then off line. Personally I don't think it's too big a deal since everyone I know off line is married and in their own world and I'm still single. There's a weird thing that happens when friends get married, part of it is me, part of it is them, but over all its just life as people drift apart.

The game itself really hasn't been all that bad or good as time wore on. I think Wrath of the Lich King has been the most boring it's been for me as far as content goes. There isn't anything that really caught my interest like in Vanilla and BC.

Cataclysm actually strikes me odd even though there are some things I see that I like. (31 point talent trees from 51?) A lot of the preview stuff I've seen so far shows not much new talents, just a few odd abilities. Whatever, and the armor preview I saw was a yawner since I know it's going to be replaced quicker then ever if I progress through raiding again.

The only thing meaningful I got out of the game over the years was the friendships I made online. The game itself has grown to be more of a disappointment as time wore on. I like PvP but as I get older the twitch I used to have when I was rocket jumping off peoples heads in Quake just isn't there like it used to be and Blizzard's ability to balance classes don't help things in that regard very much. You also just can't jump in and hope to do much without getting some gear first.

The thing I really miss the most though is being creative while having fun. You can't do that in WoW. I used to do that a lot in NWN and it was a hoot building things for myself and other people in the Toolset. Part of me really wants to go back to that or play a new game that recreates that. These days though MMOs are all game companies seem interested in.

I can still run NWN but as time goes on it's not going to run on the latest and greatest very well or at all with new OS updates and no updates on it's end. There won't be anything as simple yet fun to replace it either. Bigger and better will also bring more complexity and less access for the end gamer to be creative and have fun.

Meh.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Diamonds in the Sky

Imagine if you will, a diamond that is 4,000KM wide. Well it's real and you only have to travel 50 light years from Earth to get it. In about 7 billion years our solar system will have one too.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Funny Church Signs

So I was going through a side bar CNN had about church signs and I snagged three that made me giggle.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-418644

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-419182

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-420485