Redwolf's Journal (continued)

That was a pretty darn good movie. Even better, though, as the close to a trilogy. I think I enjoyed the chemistry and fun in Avengers more, and the first half or so of the movie felt a little on the long side, but it's still solid. It comes full circle with the threats and themes. It acknowledges how physically demanding the life of Batman is. And it manages to tie things up in a way that fits the two previous movies, while leaving some threads open regarding the future of that incarnation of Gotham City. Well done, overall. I had been thinking there was more I wanted to say, but I didn't want to risk spoiling anything (as some brief comments are big spoilers), but... well, I suppose that's why we have these tags, right? I felt sorry for everything Gordon went through. Capture, escape, blame of a fellow (even though Blake does come to understand later), and getting tossed around in the back of a truck with an unstable nuclear device all after his family left him. Ro

So a few weeks ago, I started pondering the possibility of selling some of my Magic cards. Unfortunately, offloading the bulk of them is... impractical unless I were to look for a local buyer, and the market here just isn't that big. So I consulted one of the major MtG dealer web site/shops, Star City Games. The irony of having bought cards from them before does not escape me. And here's an overview of how it went... July 7th: Sorting and grading cards by the guidelines on their web site. I'm sure I missed several things in my collection that were on their buy list because my own cards are not all well sorted, but I picked out I think a bit over a hundred cards. Their buylist page is... large. And between the quantity of text plus the various links and ads, it's rather slow to navigate even on my better computers (and nearly crippling on an older one I viewed it with). After some some consideration, I decided to submit a list of around a hundred cards that did not in

The announced release date for WoW: Mists of Pandaria. Hmm. Well, it's later than I would have guessed a year ago, but it seems fairly in-line with the things that have come up in the last six months. A month after GW2 releases and as some have pointed out, it slips in before the first wave of annual pass purchasers expires. Seems reasonable and predictable from a business perspective. If I'm surprised by anything, it's that we're hearing the date only two months out - and I'm only very minorly surprised at that. So... two months to "finish" anything in Cataclysm before driving ahead. Without a Ragnaros kill and some heroic Firelands raiding, that's probably not enough time to finish out Dragonwrath, though I'm not sure where we are on that precisely. I'd like to get a new shield (from Warmaster Blackhorn) and the 4-piece Protection bonus (probably a chest from Ultraxion), but neither of those things reaches "goal" level for me -

... can count for a lot, but business is business. Since news of 38 Studios' collapse, I've been hoping to see a broader perspective of the situation. Too many articles have been quick 'he said, she said' affairs, often focusing either on Curt Shilling or Governor Lincoln Chafee. Well, last night I found my way to a Boston Magazine article based on a broader selection of sources. To me, 'tis a very interesting read. Of course, it's hard to know what was really going through anyone's head along the way, but it paints a pretty sound picture of a company built up to make the next big MMO in the best way possible, yet lacking any idea how to actually pull that off. The goals and vision were admirable. The execution not so much. It's wonderful to treat employees as well as they did for a few years, but the attitudes behind that seem to have guaranteed that behavior would be unsustainable - and that doesn't serve anyone well, especially the newer hire

RL schedules have pushed raiding back to a later hour the last few weeks, but once everyone was present, we managed to hit the ground running last night. The zone debuff went from 25% to 30% and it was noticeable, with bosses in the first half of Dragon Soul proving... well... easy. Of course, Hagara's ice walls can still kill you if you run into where they're going. Ultraxion was a bit rough because some people died along the way, leaving us short on DPS and putting us right up against his enrage mechanic. He fell as we did, victory coming probably only because of our priest's Spirit of Redemption "resurrect." Blackhorn wasn't bad. Spine of Deathwing is still the hardest between coordination and damage, but we got that in our first go too. And so with several people who hadn't even seen the LFR version of Madness of Deathwing, we tried it and wiped once. I fear that might have been mostly my fault, though it was my first time tanking it in any form and

Just as being a jaded moviegoer/reader makes it difficult to be surprised at all by "twists" in stories, I sometimes find myself missing the naive exuberance of being a new gamer. Instead, it's hard not to let metagame thoughts seep in and dispel any real sense of atmosphere. Genuine fear or horror in an RPG? Uhh... difficult for me to even fake, honestly. Surprise when the big-bad gets away or is revealed to be someone else? Yeah, not so much. Tension over scenes where the fate of the world hangs in the balance? Meh. And that's in the games that actually have stories. When it comes to MUCK play - which is a far more common opportunity at least - there usually isn't more story than "well, here's a premise for a scene." And with such a... lack of complexity, that's even harder to make feel fresh or unique. It happens once in a while, but not often compared to the amount of time I'm logged in. And considering how rarely I come up with any s

Went into Saturday night with a good deal of uncertainty. We ended up getting together a roughly-normal raid group, even if it was late, did Alizabal and made it through Ultraxion in DS before we were losing people to weariness. Not bad, really. I do wish we could avoid having one or more people run off to town for fifteen minutes or more to turn in tokens and upgrade gear. My feeling is generally: If what you entered the raid with is good enough to progress, it's not worth the delay (and demotivation to those left waiting) to get what's probably a marginal upgrade. I picked up a new axe for my DPS set and didn't immediately use it because doing so would have taken me below the hit cap without reforging other things to balance. Admittedly, many times an upgrade isn't an issue in that way, but still. And on another note, gazing at the future, it appears the first legendary item questline in MoP offers a reward for just about everyone. But that begs the question of wh

It's the simple things... I happened to see my favorite teacher from high school today (we'll avoid names for web security reasons). Didn't talk long, but it's nice to see him still around and doing alright, even if he does have a cane these days.

Urgh. Been wrestling with a general bad mood and melancholy since late last week. I had a talk that needed to happen, would have happened soon, and wasn't so bad in and of itself, but it got me introspective. And that's where my own problems lie. Too much thinking about myself and my life leads to dissatisfaction issues. Life's better when I can distract myself with something... Saturday, I sunk myself into scouring through Magic cards comparing to the Star City Games buy list. Grading cards... mrrf... I try not to be biased by a desire for them to be sell-worthy, but we'll see how they judge my efforts as I've got a selection I'm shipping off to them soon. Part of the irony - which I fully appreciate - is that I bought cards from that site when I was playing. If the process goes well, I may actually look at selling my half-dozen or so much rarer cards. Of course, even so I'm left with two concerns. One, I fear a little "windfall" of money will s

Okay, it's July 4th, I don't have to work, I can do anyth- ... Oh look, the "online" light on my cable modem is dark. Gosh, the only support number for my provider listed in the phone book, which I used to get to automated support in the last week, is now saying it's the "sales department" and they're closed today. Grrr. Posted from work.

The weekend raid went well, clearing up through Blackhorn in DS without major problems. We had some personnel issues that made for a late start, but did have a full group. Our execution on Zon'ozz is somehow miraculously better than when we started there, and I don't believe for a moment the actual game mechanics changed. I picked up an axe that will probably tide me over until some point on Pandaria.