The Spoils: Tournament of Lament

5:48 AM, Tournament Day: Our four-month old Doberman puppy, Sadie (say dee), wakes up and begins scratching at our bed side. Groggily, I wake up and let her out to do her normal morning duties. Upon returning inside, I lay down on the couch and Sadie joins me for a nap.

7:30 AM: I awake to the horrid sound of Sadie throwing up all over our carpet. It is the first time she has ever thrown up and it is not pretty. A quick run for paper towels, Simple Solution, and a shout down the hallway for my wife, and the mess is easily contained. Thirty minutes later, and I'm crawling back into my bed; its the wife's turn to watch the puppy.

10:26 AM: I awake in terror. The tournament starts at 11 AM! I take a fast shower and give the wife a kiss on the way out. It is only a fifteen minute drive to my local game store, Reality Check Games.

11:03 AM: I make it just in time, but I seem to have forgotten something. I quickly ask the judge, Ripark Golen, if the tournament is Sealed, like the last Invitational tournament. "No, constructed." he informs me. This is when my heart sank, because halfway to the store I realized that I walked out of my house without my hat, Spring Limited Championships Top 4 playmat, and worst of all, my carefully prepared deck of cards!

Fortunately not all was lost. The judge, being a good friend, just so happened to have a deck of cards available for me to play with. Ironically, it is the one and only deck that has ever won against my deck in the store. Unfortunately, that was months ago and neither deck had been updated for the new First Edition: Part 2 mini-expansion. So, there I sat, with a borrowed "Node deck" and no chance at taking home a decent prize. But why play games if you can't just have fun?

New goal: have fun.

11:45 AM: Deck registration is complete. The tournament begins.

(o-o) Round 1 vs. Mark

In an ironic twist, I end up paired with the judge's brother, Mark. The irony doesn't end there as Mark is playing a near copy of the deck I had intended to bring. Mark played a Rogue/Arcanist deck featuring massive token built creatures and Rogue control. With my lack of experience with my borrowed deck and an unlucky draw, I went down fairly quick.

(0-1) Round 2 vs. Bin

Bin was playing a Banker deck. It probably had more to it, but I went down relatively fast. Two early game beaters, that I could not answer, combined with Banker's ability to manipulate my board presence ended the match very quickly. In a casual follow up game, I faired a bit better, but didn't do much better.

Interestingly enough, Bin commented about my blog. Always nice to be noticed for something. According to Bin, I play far too many games. In reality, I just pretend I play a lot of games.

(0-2) Round 3 vs. Joey

Joey was fun to play against. He was playing a super combo deck that was purely built to delay the game until the inevitable last turn after time has been called. I was up early, but made a mistake and didn't attack his multiple Ministry of other Smaller Ministries.

We dragged out doing nothing until time was called. Joey then informed me that he was going to win on his turn. Something I truly did not believe remotely possible, and still to this moment don't truly understand. Essentially it was an infinitely looping combo that could repeatedly do four damage to my faction.

Unfortunately, had I let it go until I was dead, the combo would have taken well over thirty minutes to complete. Something, in most tournament games, that would not be allowed. Regardless of whether the combo is working towards a finite end, time needs to be considered and players should consciously build decks with that in mind. In my limited tournament experience I've seen situations as this almost always called as slow play as it is not fair to the player sitting opposite. The player should be given the choice to end the combo early or risk being given a loss for the round.

I am not here to call Joey out. Honestly, it was a good play. He caught me red handed gearing up for my own big turn. However, with the amount of time being taken, I strongly believe the game should of been declared a draw. I stopped the combo halfway through and conceded, but it easily would have taken another ten or more minutes to complete.

Joey, if you end up reading this, I am curious to get a rundown of the combo again. Once again, I think you played great and am not calling you out as a slow player. Just sharing my opinion on timed matches.

(0-3) Round 4 - Bye! My wife timed stopping by perfectly, and brought me a much needed sandwich. This also gave me one win technically, and a chance not to finish in last place!

(1-3) Round 5 vs. Lindsay

Lindsay is the judge's wife and a good friend. So, the outcome of this match still makes me feel guilty. Lindsay was playing an updated version of her Warlord deck that I've played against several times before. I had a good draw and got out to an early lead. Without any answers, she went down on life early. A mistake on an attack, and I secured the win.

Unfortunately, I knocked Lindsay out of a Top 8 finish and put us both down into 10th and 11th place. With her two wins (no bye) she finished ahead of me. After our match, I handed her my borrowed deck to return to her husband, and wished her well.

Final Win/Loss: 2-3 11th place

In the end, I was very disappointed in myself. After my matches, I strongly believe I could of made a run for top four with my own deck. Sadly, the real world doesn't have a reset button.

Open Worlds

I realized something this morning as I played a bit of Neverwinter Nights 2's single player campaign. I do not like open world designs, like that of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, in my single player RPGs. I need guidance, clearly defined boundaries, and a path to follow. Linearity has a certain appeal to me. It doesn't force me to think too hard. Not that I don't want a game to challenge me, but who honestly enjoys being completely lost? Who actually enjoys exploring a single player world? Well, not me.

Neverwinter Night 2 (NWN2) has been both praised and smited for having a somewhat linear single player campaign. Unlike other classic D&D computer RPGs, for example Baldur's Gate II, NWN2 is a pretty straight forward game. Most of my time in NWN2 is spent going from point A to point B while completing tasks on the way. Games such as Baldur's Gate II tend to build "hubs" where you spend eons completing side quests and generally losing grasp of the main storyline for some time.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Baldur's Gate II. However, I played it when I was single, had tons of spare time, and for the most part was still birthing myself into the PC gaming scene. I consider myself lucky to have enjoyed Baldur's Gate II inside and out. Funny thing is though, I had to buy a strategy guide for the game. I was just getting endlessly lost without one.

Back to the main point, I prefer my single player RPGs to be on some sort of rails. I want my choices to effect outcomes, but not so much that I have to change gears midway through the story. Give me a path to follow, and make it kick ass the whole way through. So far, NWN2 has delivered in this regard.

There is one genre in which I demand open worlds though; MMORPGs. Playing MMORPGs is one of the main reasons I don't want overly open single player RPGs. If I am going adventuring into a world, I truly want the chance to encounter another living being at some point. MMORPGs have spoiled my explorer appetite by just simply putting me into a world with other players.

Still, in MMORPGs, I want guidance. That was a main attraction of World of Warcraft. I spent literally no time outside of WoW searching for the next area to level. I spent my time inside WoW, learning the world, quests, and progression first hand. It is the only MMORPG in which that is possible.

This is getting long. Open worlds belong in multi-player games. Single player games need linearity.

Perfect... Again

The fall semester ended a while ago, but I never posted my results. Well, receiving a letter congratulating me on making the President's List, spurred me to post. After a tough fall semester I achieved yet another 4.0. For the sports fans keeping track at home, that is a cumulative 4.0 GPA.

Pirates of the Burning Seas will be Published by SOE

Pirates of the Burning Seas will now be published by SOE.

Here is the breakdown:

Flying Lab Software
• Game Development
• Community
• Customer Support
• Server Operations

Sony Online Entertainment
• Billing
• Launcher
• Retail Distribution
• Localization
• Marketing

Here is my problem. I have spoken strongly towards voting with my wallet for the games I choose to play and subscribe to. I have stated that I refuse to "vote" for any SOE sponsored game; from Vanguard to Star Wars: Galaxies.

Sadly, I was 100% set on playing Pirates of the Burning Seas. The game design looks solid. The graphics look great. The developers, Flying Lab Software, have been stellar through the entire process; ensuring the community is always up to date.

I don't know where I stand. I understand the need for a publisher and SOE is a valid choice. I will have to monitor this situation closely and hopefully I can be convinced that SOE will not try to dictate development; regardless of what the contract states.

I'm really pissed that I didn't see this coming. Flying Lab Software has been looking for a distribution solution for some time. SOE, in a mad push to gobble up as many MMOG projects as they can, was a perfect fit. While SOE is just the publishers at this time, it still worries me that they have their hand in the cookie jar.

Violent Crimes in the US have Fallen by 60% since Doom was Released

Since Doom was released in 1993, violent crimes in the United States have dropped to 40% of what they used to be. Coincidence? Possibly, yes. However, the year Quake and Duke Nukem 3D were released, violent crimes fell by 4%, and a further 2% when Grand Theft Auto was released.



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This Is Sparta!

This is Sparta!

Neverwinter Nights 2

I picked up a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 and have started playing it. I was in the NWN2 multi-player beta test, but the game didn't seem ready to launch. Unfortunately, it launched to a myriad of mixed reviews. There were obvious bugs and technical issues at launch.

Still, as a huge fan of the original NWN, I decided to keep NWN 2 on my radar. Well, the game has gone through a series of patches and for the most part seems to have turned around. I decided it was time for me to jump in and give it a fair shake. So far, I have not been disappointed. Graphics are good, gameplay is better, and most technical issues have been resolved.

The one weak area is with multi-player play. According to the developers this is the next issue they are going to tackle in patch 1.07. That should give me enough time to finish the single-player campaign and play around with the toolset.

Alien Puppy!

It's attack of the ALIEN PUPPY! Actually this is a picture of our wonderful new Doberman puppy, Sadie (say dee), holding her favorite frisbee. Enjoy!

What Happened to eBay?

I was a big fan of eBay six years ago. I enjoyed selling and buying used items, from skateboards to video games. Rarely did a search return with dozens of "NEW" results. There were very few items with a buyout of $0.99 and a shipping total of $19.99. Back in the day, eBay was actually a virtual Auction House.

Currently, eBay is nothing more than a glorified and unfriendly Amazon.com. It amazes me that eBay is still actually in business. Most items are sold for dirt cheap buyouts with an insanely high shipping cost. And if I understand it correctly, eBay makes nothing from the shipping cost. A while ago, eBay posted saying they were going to remove auctions with over-inflated shipping costs, but any search on eBay will tell you a different story.

Another annoying trend is the auction listings themselves. Once upon a time, the listings actually described the item that was up for auction. Now a days, the listings are templated, automated, and filled with garbage. There is two lines mirroring the auctions title, a stolen image from Google, and then two pages of nonsensical legalese stating that God himself has jurisdiction over Canada. Is it too much to ask for eBay to police listings so they actually LIST something about the item being sold?

Honestly, I wish eBay would split the auctions into two categories:

Category 1: Hey, I am too lazy to get a real job, so here is a bunch of garbage I bought on clearance you can bid on. Oh, and I get great deals from my distributer, so I will sell this crap well below retail while fucking the brick and mortar stores of the world. BTW, shipping starts at $19.99.

Category 2: Hey, I have this great item that I have no use for any longer. If it something useful to you, then please feel free to bid and pay a reasonable shipping cost based on it's weight.

In the bid to become the best auction site on the Internet, they have simply become the most bloated.

At Least the Review is Good

Slashdot has a review of Lord of the Rings Online up. Just take a moment and read through a few of the comments. There are gems like this hiding within:

Frankly, I was really disappointed. The combat system sucks - it actually has a window that says things like "You hit the wolf for two points of damage". It felt like going back in time to the 80's.

While the poster does make some valid points about video games vs. realism, I don't really think he bought the game for the right reason. But that comment isn't what really frustrates me about the comments.

Everyone defending MMORPGs is using World of Warcraft. WoW has this. WoW has that. WoW, the most fucking awesome thing to hit planet earth, does it that way too! WoW has somehow become the definition of MMORPG.

WoW has done a lot of things very well and has finally put everything into a polished, complete, and fun game. But for the love of MMORPGs, it is not the only way to do things. I made the mistake once of trying to define MMORPGs. I failed. Raph Koster beat me over the head with a big stick for it. I learned.

My suggestion to everyone. Get out and play a wider variety of games!

Anyways, at least the actual review is worth a read.