Happy Holidays

Not being able to manipulate images while I’m visiting family, here is my 2006 season’s greeting.

Year in WoW Recap

The Burning Crusade started this, causing a severe loss in productivity while I leveled my character from 60 to 70. That doesn’t really matter, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. As of now, my character is exceedingly well geared. I’m working on gaining the faction reputation with Netherwing so I can get a drake mount. We’ll see if I have the interest to keep up this grind for rep.

iPod No More

What do you do with a broken iPod?  My 60 GB iPod photo recently bit the dust.  Oddly, I had a dream it would die about  week ago.  Hopefully I’m not becoming an oracle, because my dreams are generally messed up and I wouldn’t want those visions to become a reality. 

Anyway, I found a blog post that lists sites that will pay you for your broken iPod.  Generally they cannibalize them for parts.  I have also found that fixing your iPod is a lot easier than one might think.   I found another web site that gives step-by-step instructions to replace/fix different iPod parts.  The hardest part: a correct diagnosis of the problem.  I held my iPod up to my ear and could audibly hear the drive failing.  If I hadn’t already purchased a new 160 GB iPod Classic (read: I wanted this item more than I wanted to fix the Photo), I would have fixed my old iPod myself.

Before any repairs take place, a cost analysis should be done as well.  A 60 GB hard drive for an iPod Photo runs about $150 dollars, and a brand new 80 GB iPod Classic is $250 (Best Buy includes a $25 gift card with this purchase right now).  After drooling over my friend’s Classic, I decided a new one was a better spend of my money.

Zeitgeist

I can’t get seem to embed this movie in my blog, but check it out.  Zeitgeist the Movie blew my mind.  That hasn’t happened in a long time.  Watch the whole thing.  Definitely worth it.

Disclaimer:  I need to look into the variety of topics discussed in the film.

Half-Life 2: Orange Box

Here is a quick review of Valve’s Orange Box:

Portal: A lot of fun. This is a totally new twist on first person shooters - a puzzle element. Not the lame flick a switch, gather the key card type puzzle, but an honest-to-goodnes, use your education puzzle. While that may sound dangerously close to learning something, it is a lot of fun. Basically you have a gun that shoots portals; one shot delivers a portal entrance, the second shot is the exit. If you want to get to the other side of a gap, shoot the entrance portal next to you, and fire the exit portal at the opposite wall. You use this combination to get from point A to point B. That may not sound like a lot of fun, but it is.

The X factor is gravity. You can use the portals to fall from the ceiling. Open another portal beneath yourself as you fall and your momentum continues to build. Once you have enough velocity quickly shoot an exit portal on the back wall, and you will be propelled across great horizontal distance. My lame description doesn’t explain how much fun it is.

While this is going on, there is a computer program that guides you through the puzzles with all the innocence of Steve Urkel. The program almost says “Did I do that?” as it tries to foil your attempt to find the solution. And by foil I mean break your legs, set you ablaze, or steam roll you with a large object. Some of the computer’s lines are absolutely hysterical. This game is 9 out of 10 in my book. The only downside was it took me three hours to beat the game, and I wanted more! On the positive side, you can create your own puzzles or load user created maps.

Episode 2: This continues to Half-Life 2 story arch. It picks up a few minutes after the end of Episode 1. Solid story and is still lots of fun. I don’t know why, but I really like the characters in this game. I’ve bonded with Alyx and Dog over the past few years. Maybe that means I should spend more time with real people. It took me a little more than 5 hours to complete this section of the game. Worth the play.

Team Fortress 2: I played the first one on dial-up way back in the day and wasn’t all the thrilled with it. As usually, I didn’t even load this game onto my computer. I have very little interest in playing random people that accuse everyone of cheating because of their lack of skill.

As a bonus, you get Episode 1 and Half-Life 2 in this package. For 50 bones, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal; especially if you don’t already own E1 or HL2. Definite buy. Since I think World of Warcraft is the best game ever, I rate games on a scale of 1 to 10 days away from WoW. I give Orange Box 10 days away from WoW. Go play this game, seriously.

Why Second Life will fail

Second Life is a massive, multi-player online “game,” only it isn’t a game; its living your life precariously through your computer. Does that sound dumb? It is.

I’m an avid gamer. When I play a game, I play with one intent: to beat the game. In World of Warcraft (arguably my own double life), there isn’t an end to speak of, but there are still in-game achievements. I log in to get better gear, to explore new instances (dungeons), or fight against other players (PVP). There is a social aspect as well. My friends and guild mates on WoW have bonded through the game’s experiences. We are all playing to get to the next level, get that uber-weapon, or obtain a higher PVP rank. I’m playing with a purpose and there is a method to my digital madness.

Second Life does not have goals. You wander around with no real reason to do anything. There is no next level, and no purpose. Why aimlessly wander around in a poorly rendered, often laggy version of your real life? The non-virtual reality is people don’t want to. Second Life can’t get people to log on for more than 12 minutes a month. Those 12 minutes a month are the average, and not the median. That means there are a bunch of people that log in for about 30 seconds and a few outliers that log in for the duration of the month that inflate the amount of time spent in game. I would fathom a guess that those outliers are people working for Second Life.

Another difference is virtual economy. In WoW, you earn gold by completing quests. This gold is used to make your character better - hence the reason to continue playing; virtual gold earned to buy virtual property. In Second Life, you pay someone real money (read: U.S. dollars) and get virtual money to buy virtual property; money earned in your real life is used to buy virtual property. To put this in perspective, when you give someone money at Chuck E. Cheese you at least get tokens that represent wasted money. In Second Life, your money is just gone. You’re not getting it back, unless you sell it to someone. The economy also suffers from inflation. In the real world, each country has a finite supply of money, hence its value. It’s supply and demand; a limited supply of dollars keeps its value a constant. If the market were suddenly flooded with $100 billion, you’d keep a supply of it in your bathroom because toilet paper would be worth more. Since there is an unlimited supply of money in Second Life, the more people that buy into the game, the more inflated prices will become and the more Linden Dollars (Second Life currency) will be needed to buy property. Your money depreciates every time a person “invests” in Second Life dollars. A search for Linden Dollars on eBay reveals that no one has an interest in pissing actual money away on virtually (and literally) worthless currency. The exchange rate for U.S. Dollars to Linden Dollars is about $45 to 10,000. Unfortunately, to go from Linden Dollars to U.S. dollars is about 5 billion to less than 1 cent. You’re stuck with your worthless currency. Sounds like the communist Soviet Union in the 1980’s, doesn’t it?

So why is there hype for this new virtual space? There is potential for having a virtual community. People can make contacts and friends, learn about new things or spend money. Absolutely anything can be created in this world; imagine having a 3-D Amazon.com, but Second Life’s pay to play model isn’t going to work. As with newspapers and subscription sites (ever hear of classmates.com?), Internet users will not pay for something they can essentially get for free (more traditional social networks, such as Facebook or Myspace, are a lot easier to use too). Faster computers and Internet connection speeds are also needed to make this world more accessible. Second Life software is horrible to look at and runs extremely slow. If Second Life, or similar program, could be played right in your web browser it would probably be a hit. I think that downloading and installing a very large program is beyond the capabilities of a lot of people.

There are many reasons people play MMORPGS, most of them being an escape from the tedium of day-to-day activities (i.e. work and school). In an MMORPG, you have spells and can kill bad guys. In Second Life, well, you can try to earn stuff by working - exactly like you do from 9 to 5. And in this second 9 to 5 grind, you will never be able to translate your efforts in cash. Instead, you will regret blowing your money and wish you would have listened to me.

Blog Stats

I checked my blog web metrics today. My blog isn’t all that popular, which is fine. I don’t update it that often. My previous blog recounted my experiences dealing with the public while I was working at a retail outlet. Now that I work in an office, I don’t have as much direct contact with the public and the wonderfully colorful experiences it provides. This means I have fewer amusing moments to write about from day to day. I’m (hopefully) getting back into creative writing. It’s strange that I write less now that I am in grad school and have a job.

Anyway, the metrics. I was looking at search terms used to find this site, and one of them was “make a person out of different body part.” Now I hope I’m not exposing anyone that found my blog and liked it, but I would like to ask this person what they were looking for and why they clicked through to my site. And, from my limited scientific experience, this is not possible. Of course you could get the DNA from that body part to try to clone them. Again, mostly theoretical. Finally, I shouldn’t be quoted as a source for a science fair project. Your teacher would flip if he/she saw my page as a reference. Besides, that’s what Wikipedia is for.

Best R4 Unit

I recently ordered a R4 - Revolution for the DS, a homebrew product that fully utilizes the DS hardware. Essentially it allows you to do a lot more with your Nintendo DS, from surfing the web to sending instant messages.

This product is considered a “gray” item, meaning it falls into that gray area of legality. While the product itself is legal, chances are what you plan to do with it isn’t. Yes, you can download DS games for this product (called .nds roms), but do so at your own peril.

First off, there is no soldering or modification to the DS unit at all. The R4 copies software information from your computer onto a micro SD card; once loaded into the DS, the R4 software boots up instead of the standard Nintendo DS operating system, allowing you to scroll through and launch anything contained on the card.

Help with R4 Setup

You’ll need to order the R4- Revolution for DS and a micro SD card. I found the R4 on Amazon for about $45 (the price has since gone up to about $50 from Amazon sellers). I ordered a 2 GB micro SD card for about $20, but wish I would have gone with the 4 GB model as my card is now filled. Don’t worry about getting an SD card reader for your PC, a micro SD to USB adapter is included in the R4 package.

Setting up the micro SD card took a little bit of work. Although the included instructions of this Chinese product are labeled “English,” they make absolutely no sense. Don’t even bother trying to decipher the “Engrish;” I’m going to do my best to guide you through the setup process.

First off, you need to search for the latest version of the Moonshell application (Google: “moonshell“). As of writing this, the current version is 1.71. Once Moonshell finishes downloading, connect your micro SD card to your computer then run the included setup.exe file. The program will give a prompt, asking for the micro SD drive letter. Tell the program the correct drive, and you’ll get another menu. This menu sets up Moonshell to work with your R4 unit. Under ROM image make sure only “R4TF R4(DS) - Revolution for DS” is checked, and in configuration files check “moonshell.ini (full) is copied”(click here for an illustrated explanation).

After that, just drag and drop whatever files you want onto the root drive of your micro SD card (if your SD card was your G:\ drive, the root would be G:\) and you’re ready to go . With a couple of add0ns, you can surf the web, use the DS as a planner, watch movies, listen to mp3s, or even create your own app.

Review

I can’t say enough about this product. I like it a lot. I use my DS more now than ever and find it extremely convenient to store all the games I own on one card. Not having to swap or carry those tiny DS cartridges alleviates any fears of me losing one. I’ve even found some games people have created for the DS using the R4.

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare, the latest military first person shooter in this excellent series, does not disappoint. I played the PC version, the platform I recommend for all first-person shooters.

Unlike the previous iterations, this game does not take place during World War II. This installment brings you to a modern day conflict that starts with your English special forces unit finding a nuclear weapon stowed away on a ship. The story then switches to an American combat unit in the middle east (where you are Pvt. Jackson - take a guess at sex and race), before culminating with the two squads converging on the threat in the former Soviet block country Something-or-other-stan. The story is pretty standard fare, but it cohesively advances the level locations and plot points. I won’t go into the details, but the voice acting and in-game cinematics are fantastic. I particularly liked the guard dog animations as they chomp on your throat. Those German shepherds are tough, but a quick flash of the knife when they lunge for your neck will put them in the dog house, so to speak (a thousand apologies). For the squeamish, fear not; it’s not particularly gory. I had to grin when I saw myself chewed up like Kibble and Bits. The attention to detail created many moments I thoroughly enjoyed throughout the game, this being one of my favorite. I also liked seeing a pack of wild dogs attack a rogue Soviet military squad.

Modern guns make for a lot of fun. In the training mission it tells you to shoot through walls at enemies behind cover - and they do seek cover. Go-go-gadget improvements to ballistics! You’ll get enemies that flank and even stick their gun around a corner to spray and pray. Generally the game intelligence is on point, I didn’t see anything as retarded as in Halo3. The tougher AI makes the game harder than previous installments. This is a good thing as I thought the first two weren’t challenging enough (but I still liked them a lot). As frustrating as it is to die a million times, I don’t want to feel like the hot knife that Rambo is, cutting through a butter soft enemy. I want a challenge.

I can’t complain about the game at all. There is a sniper mission in Chernobyl (Radioactively AWESOME! - favorite mission of the game), missions firing on the enemy from a gun ship, and light weapons fire fights with terrorists. All of them are fun. The only complaint I have is the length of the game. It took me roughly five hours to beat, from start to finish. It left me wanting more, but for the first time in a LONG time I actually wanted to play through a game again. This hasn’t happened since Medal of Honor: Allied Assault appeared in my college dorm (actually, I may have played through the other Call of Duty games more than once).

As with all things, I rarely play the multiplayer mode. Call of Duty 4 was no exception, I never got around to it. I don’t have anything negative to say about it because I didn’t try it out. I will say that I’m sure its multiplayer mode has to be better than the one in Halo 3 (I’m still pissed that game made me feel like I just stepped in steaming horse shit in my bare feet and if you tell me you actually liked this game I will think less of you). I watched my brother play deathmatch for a bit and he seemed to enjoy it. His credentials include countless weeks logged in Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, and America’s Army - I’ll take his word that it’s fun.

Since World of Warcraft is the greatest game ever, I rate the games I review on a scale of one to 10 days away from WoW. Call of Duty 4 took me away from the enchanted lands of Azeroth for nine days. COD4 is fun, looks good and the storyline almost feels like a movie. Definitely check this game out. It’s the best first person shooter I’ve played this year.

What to get your family for Christmas

Spoiler alert: if you’re one of my family members, I would like to warn you of spoilers; come back and read this after X-mas.

I’m not sure what to get my family members for Christmas. I’ve got two brothers, 23 and 20, a 16-year old sister, and divorced, 50-something parents. I don’t live close enough to home to have a good idea of what currently piques their interests.

My dad is a good-humored pastor. I’m sending him The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. In the past I’ve purchased such novelty items as a Buddy Christ, a Jesus is my homeboy t-shirt, and Church with Reverend Lovejoy playset. I was thinking about buying a Roman coin from the time of Jesus, but I didn’t research it enough. It’s cool to think Jesus could have personally handled it. He also tends to like indie flicks, but I can’t think of anything I really liked this year. I thought about getting him a couple months of Netflix, but he didn’t seem interested when I asked if he’d use it. Ideas?

It was just brought to my attention that my brother doesn’t have his computer plugged into a surge protector. I learned this during competitive, ranked World of Warcraft arena match (we lost the match sans warlock). Also, unlike the books I bought him for his birthday, this gift will alleviate any feelings of guilt when I ask him if he ever got around to it.

I am unsure what to get my other brother. He has started collecting guns from World War II. My dad has started referring to our house as Fortress Bobosh, so I’m not feeding that beast. He likes daily comic strips and I recently lent him the Bone collection, which he also enjoyed. He’s still an avid gamer, but already has Call of Duty 4 (which I beat when I was at home for Thanksgiving - it’s sweet). Penny Arcade something or other?

The 16 year-old sister is tough to shop for also. She’s in her teenage years and has the attitude that goes with it. She can’t form an opinion without a group consensus from her peers despite my attempts to indoctrinate her against being a sheep. This means getting anything but an item deemed socially acceptable by her peer group won’t do. Oh, to be a teenager. So what do you get a spoiled teenage girl with rich friends? Hopefully the item isn’t pink.

Finally, my mother. I ordered a couple DVDs for her, but her birthday falls four days before Christmas so I need a second gift idea. She’s decided to go back to school and is in a music education graduate program. She’s really into folk music and wholesome values. Any thoughts? I sent her the Namesake and The Sound of Music thus far. She doesn’t seem to read for pleasure much (side effect of grad school - strangely enough I also write a whole lot less also), so sending a book wouldn’t be ideal.

As for myself, I don’t really need anything in particular. I’d like a digital SLR camera, but its an expensive item I can do without. The girlfriend asked if I’d like a Wii, but it would be wiisted on me as it would sit next to my unused 360. I’ve been debating building a new PC, but I think I’m going to wait on that one. It’ll only encourage me to ignore my studies. My 250 GB hard drive has reached its capacity, so I was thinking now is the time. I want a terabyte of storage but hard drives over 500 GB don’t use IDE cables anymore, making it incompatible with my current system (which started this whole “should I get a new one” deliberation). I think it’d be cool if I turned my old computer into a digital media server to stream movies and music to my HD monitor.

Virtual Property

Play Money by Julian Dibbell delves into the illicit world of gold farming and gray gaming. Being somewhat of an MMORPG addict, I find the selling of virtual properties a bit ridiculous. There are people that spend a lot of their time farming (repetitively killing monsters for the items they drop) to sell the items for real world cash.

Some video game companies (such as Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft) are against people taking advantage of making money off of their virtual economies. People sell the ingame currency and items for real world dollars. This throws off the in-game economy as people that haven’t earned items, characters and gold use real money to get ahead in the game. This is a form of cheating as the entire game is about earning and exploring on your own, not paying someone else to make your character better. The real world equivalent of this would be paying someone to do your homework; you aren’t actually doing the work, but you’re earning the degree.

It’s being lazy more than anything. I don’t like the idea that people buy their way into the top (which could be argued as hypocritical, as I’m going to grad school). Games are meant to be fun. There is no reward in paying someone else to make you a great character in World of Warcraft; the whole point of the game is to play. Its a GAME, not real life. Either play because its fun or don’t play at all. What’s the point of having someone play your game for you? Clearly an MMORPG isn’t for you; find a different genre and stick to it.

I think that virtual goods are a stupid idea. There is no reason anyone should pay cash for a free item (paying for  entertainment is one thing, paying for non-existent items is beyond me). I dislike the idea of Microsoft points in the Xbox marketplace and I don’t like the idea of having to pay for second life dollars and real estate. I’m going to start selling plots on the moon, any takers?