Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So, let's see, what have I read lately? I finished The Spirit Thief ... uhh... a couple weeks ago? I wasn't quite sure what to say at the time. One the one hand, there are some characters I would definitely say I like and some I would like to learn more about. I'll also grant that the spirit-based magic system is interesting. On the other hand, some of the escalation in the comeback scenes are a bit much for me, and the main character is actually one of the least interesting/appealing to me of the central cast. Eli Monpress is too "special." Chosen of a goddess, just plain "liked" by spirits so much that they'll do things for him that "normal" mages can't ask, and he generally has this palpable air of plot-immunity. I know a book's protagonist generally isn't going to lose (at least not when it counts), but I found myself finding not even the merest illusion that such an outcome might, maybe be possible. That makes it pretty h

It's nice to have a decent Shadowrun game around. This one's the single-player, toolkit-based one (whereas there's a Shadowrun Online that seems to be a quasi-MMO in the works). In general, I find it worth the $20. The campaign is pretty good in my book. It's not Planescape: Torment and there are several typos in the conversation text, but it takes a story and builds it up, upping the ante over the 10 hours (I read 12, but it only took me about 10). It's set fairly early in the SR continuity and it includes some big-name characters. Pretty engrossing and fun. And at $2/hour, that's better than movie rates for certain. Add to that all the player-created campaigns that are likely to be made, and it seems a pretty good deal. There are a few problems, though. The most grievous is the automatic-checkpoint-only save system. Not being able to manually save is annoying enough, but losing upwards of half a hour or so of activity because you have to leave the game is

Y'know, I wrote yesterday's comments during a lull in the work day. It wasn't until after finishing almost 11 hours working and coming home to get online that some observations really coalesced and came to the forefront in my mind. GW2 is feeling very chore-like. The increased emphasis on achievements (with achievements and bonuses for achievement points), the daily/monthly achievements for both points and laurels, the living story additions that run between about a week or a month and are starting to overlap, the daily reward chests for the world bosses, daily login influence... Basically, the entire game design (and indications are future development is the same) all says "Hey, if you want the most out of this game, you need to log in for a while every single day!" You're not technically forced to. The game is playable at whatever pace. But the pressure is there, and it's just as bad as the most intense period of daily-activities-are-required-for-

Things are getting to (maybe?) more normal at work after the last couple days. Wrrf. That was rough. And while it looked like the connection issues were at an intermediary stage, it turns out it was hardware at our ISP. If traceroutes and similar tests are that deceptive, what good are they? Ah well. Edit: Ah, fun. I can still get stuck working late... whee... I've not done much in WoW lately.There was some talk about how a few guildies might be interested in the assault on Garrosh, but without an active raid team, we aren't going to be jumping into the 5.4 raid anyway. Still not much reason to renew a subscription and I think my time expires fully in a few weeks. FFXIV was interesting and very pretty, but if feels overly-traditional to me. It also occurred to me that some of the beauty may be due to the zoning - seriously, most of the major hub cities are 2-3 separate zones before you even get outside them. But ultimately, combat (as a a low-level lancer, conjurer, and pu

... before getting called in Sunday night, getting stuck at the office 'til after midnight, then coming in the morning to track down the same problem. Rawrgle! Thankfully, those serious internet connectivity issues seem to have been resolved and I'm not doing too badly for getting only about five hours of sleep.

Go from a night of spiraling depression and difficulty getting to sleep to early waking and just... ugh. Exhaustion, but I can't get back to sleep. Watching play of The Last of Us may not have helped my mindset. And how with my coworker off starting a raft trip vacation, I get to go into work "early" as well. Just... ugh...

Well, with a manager who cares about things like training and interns, things are a little different now and then. We've been struggling to find things for a summer intern to do the last week or so. They can't very well do "basic" things like new user setup without administrative access to the domain, and that's a bit much to trust someone with. They don't have the familiarity to resolve other "normal" problems through the office. They don't have the technical skill to tackle major issues. We've set him to doing something of an inventory, though the data he's collecting will have probably 90% overlap with a list I already put together/maintain. And that was just week one. And... I've now attended a famous* Fred Pryor seminar. This one was on the "Fundamentals of Project Management." Ooo. Ahhh. *Okay, I've no idea about fame or overall reputation, but I've seen their flyers for years. Honestly, that may not ha

So I started sampling the FFXIV Realm Reborn beta. I used to think a Final Fantasy MMO would be the one I'd get drawn into. That didn't happen with XI. So how will this one shape up... on its second release? Well, I've only had a little time with it. It's very, very pretty. It doesn't quite move or feel as fluid as other games I've played. It has some classic appeal and charm. The interface is serviceable, but not an improvement. I find myself disliking the map (though not as strongly as in the original GW). I also find the lack of in-game voice to be something I miss (when did that happen?). I'll try the beta more (it looks like this stage 3 beta ends on the 15th and stage 4 is "open beta"), but I have yet to see anything that would draw me in past the increasingly-less-typical monthly subscription fee. So far, I think that would take a solid community of friends in the game while I only see one or two likely. But it is very pretty.

So our group started up a new Pathfinder game last night, while I'm still working on system/campaign design myself. Without a great deal of inspiration, I ended up with a sorcerer. Yay, the Charisma-heavy character. Party leader again? Well, maybe not. It's hard to see how things will truly shake out so far, but so far my character is (at least in my mind) Neutral "I don't give a fuck" Evil. He's not randomly malicious. He's not furthering evil in the world. But he really doesn't much care about anyone else. As the slave caravan was beset by dire wolves, others grabbed a distracted guard to shake him down for keys and weapons. With that in hand, my character merely felt the need to point out the slaver's imminent doom at the hands of the wolves. When it came time to negotiate the sale of the horses taken from their recent captors, he stepped right up. Money isn't his primary motivator, but it surely doesn't hurt. Then, only leaving the

Back and forth, back and forth... But in the last week, I've actually made some progress, at least. So I had a campaign idea I wanted to follow up on, but it's been a struggle to get anywhere with. I started with some scene-setting imagery in mind a while back. On further thought, it might be interesting to have people who aren't such celebrities, so that's ceased being a "requirement." Rather, the PCs are survivors of the climactic battle of a war - possibly from either side or even just on the scene at the time. Whatever the case, they've inherited a degree of supernatural power. That power, though, has a sort of dark side to it. The first part of the campaign is likely to be learning about that power, through personal experience and witnessing of others. Then things develop from there. One huge hurdle had been even picking an RPG system. Similar to my sources of inspiration, I want a system that allows heroic mortals to stand above the rank-and-

... I really just don't want to deal with people. Usually there's a trigger for it, sure, but the details don't much matter. I think I may be on the "recovering" part of one of these periods, but still...

Well let's see, what's to say? There's a big push at work to get switched over to a fiber optic internet line, which should provide around 7 times the bandwidth we've had (for less money). If things go well, that should be up by the end of the week. If things don't... well, yeah. Afternoon thunderstorms fouled any weekend hiking plans, though I can't really complain too much. The area needs any precipitation it can get. I've made some very minor progress in campaign/rules design toward something I think could work. The up side is I've addressed the trickiest parts to my fair satisfaction. The down side is that leaves everything else - setting info and sifting through rules to make necessary alterations or writing up new sections. Whee. Not moving quickly by any means. Over the weekend, I had two radically different dungeon experiences in GW2. Saturday (after finishing up my Gift of Battle), I tried out a guildmate's advice and used gw2lfg.com to