Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Oh, how I wish I could remember more of this, but I woke up from dreaming early in the morning and was only able to cement a few bits and pieces before returning to slumber. In one dream, I was some sort of anthro canid - wolf or fox perhaps - and... I really don't remember what happened. What I do remember is "waking" from this dream into a second one where I was in some sort of really fancy hotel that was modular and running on some sort of parallel train track system. This dream had a secret agent vibe to it, though I don't remember specifics, and while I wasn't fully lucid, the dream-me recognized having just woken up from another dream and thought "This is like Inception. Someone may be trying to hack my brain." I feel like there was some conflict and action there, though I can no longer remember it, and "waking" into yet another dream before I became actually conscious. I really wish I could remember more.

Just a few sessions of Star Wars Saga Edition on the player side of things, and I'm stricken by the extreme range in currency-dependency of the characters. In D&D, there's generally a way to convert gold to magic items. And magic items are used to increase character power. So whether because of Honest Abe's Discount Magic Items chain or a party member with item creation feats, it's generally assumed that that this conversion will happen - gold becomes an increase to the character's abilities in some fashion. Star Wars games, because of the material they emulate, don't have that outlet as there aren't any ubiquitous magic items. So it seems you end up with two (maybe two and a half) types of characters who are on opposite extremes. On one end, you have the characters that almost don't care about credits. A Jedi gets his lightsaber, a scoundrel gets his blaster, and... they're good to go. As long as they have enough money to buy meals (if the g

Monday night, my cable box went "pop" and decided it didn't want to run anymore. Some elements still got power, including a case fan and a couple LED lights visible in the back, but the main display showed nothing, no matter how many times I pushed the power button. Yesterday, I got home and tested. Still dead. So, I took what seemed the next reasonable step and called my cable company. They've got a little automated troubleshooter system before you get to any real person. I can respect the desire to get the simple/obvious fixes out of the way first, but when I reached the part where the recorded voice told me to unplug the box, plug it back in, and wait "up to 5 minutes" for it to reboot, I started to feel like this was all a little silly. When the problem is that it won't boot up, waiting for it to do so it a bit futile, and I could have explained that to a person in a fraction of the time. Then it continued with "this could take another 5 minut

So after doing some beta test playing of (censored due to NDA), there are things I want to post about, but can't. Darn. It also got me thinking a little about the very nature of beta testing. There was a time it was all done internally, but these days there are big closed and open betas of some major games. I suppose it's mostly crept up like that in MMOs, where fielding "massive" numbers of testers is impractical or impossible internally. It puts some degree of stress on the hardware and software, which is pretty crucial to getting the grounding for even a halfway stable launch. It also, inevitably, serves as a preview to potential customers. Judging by chat conversations, some people get wrapped up in that and lose sight of the testing part. But even those who report every glitch and look for ways to "breaK" things will be forming opinions along the way. No real deep insights, but I find it interesting to see how that's become such a major part o

At least when you die, you can return to live at a waypoint. A couple nights ago, I hit my first real bug in GW2 in a while. I was making my way up the Nightmare Tower doing dailies - a place aptly named when you're not operating in a group. I believe it's toward the end of level two where the Toxic Wurm Queen spawns - an event that has to be cleared to open the way to the next level. I hit that part with several people around, so it seemed like fair odds we'd succeed. Then it swallowed me. Okay, no biggie, that's a mechanic of the fight - someone gets swallowed, takes some damage, and gets spit out after several seconds. Only this time, it didn't spit me out. The initial DOT debuff ran out and... nothing else happened. My character was still not visible on the screen, skills were still locked out, I was still "in combat" so couldn't waypoint out. I wasn't taking damage, in fact I was healing back to full due to gear benefits. Then everyone

I've had some ideas about roleplaying bouncing around, and some discussed, that I've been trying to coalesce into some semi-coherent post. I don't think I've really succeeded yet, but I don't want to let it all slip away either. When I looked the points, they're all tied together in my mind by the expectations in roleplaying . Part of this came about in a discussion about an RP session that started with something like (paraphrasing here) "Was that okay? Are the political undercurrents of this setup too inscrutible to be fun?" And that got me thinking, and talking, about how some things are just incredibly hard to run well in RP, probably only working out for the best in cases of rare alignment between GM and players. In that particular case, it fell into the realm of what I classify as a puzzle/mystery - working out the motivations of political individuals to try to read a situation and take according action. Puzzles and mysteries are a bitch to p

Having fairly recently finished the story of GTA V and found myself in a motivational lull in GW2 (again), I considered my options and remembered I had never finished Arkham City. Heck, I'd barely started it before getting sidetracked with something else. So that's been providing sideline entertainment until I finished it up a few days ago. Solid game all around. Playing as Batman is pretty empowering (even if you could argue that's odd as he has no personal superpowers). The game is fairly straightforward. Even a lot of the side missions are presented pretty directly, though there are a few exceptions and a bunch of achievementy puzzles. The list of villains is pretty impressive and handled well for the most part. Joker is the primary antagonist, but the Penguin, Two-Face, and other big names all make an appearance. There are moments of mutual respect with Ra's, Talia, and Freeze. It comes together pretty well without feeling overly cluttered, strangely. Most of th

Not in so many words, but I have essentially been asked: "Why aren't my friends more excited about Warlords of Draenor? At least you're into it, right?" Well... somewhat. I'm interested enough to watch. At this stage, I can't say for certain that I'm interested enough to play. I mean, the release is probably still somewhere around 11 months away, and a lot can change in a year. Features can be added/dropped. Real life situations can radically change. Also, momentum can be a big thing in an MMO - and a year of not playing is momentum in the direction of continuing to not play. Personally, based on what I've seen at this early stage , I suspect I will buy the expansion and give it a month or two. Any play beyond that is probably going to depend on the state of the guild. If I log in, see people I know, and have the option to chat and do stuff with them regularly, then I may resubscribe on a regular basis. That said, it's possible that I'll

Good movie in general, if not very surprising either. The first half did a little too much telling and skipping around rather than showing, but things solidify a bit better as the movie goes on. Still, enjoyable overall.

I don't even think this often about books, but this is one that should be converted to film. Russian-born werewolf (human-to-wolf shifting, not so much the regenerating-from-anything-but-silver variety) serving in the British Secret Service during World War 2 - that's not a bad pitch to start with. More than that, though, it's written with a very cinematic flare. Most of the scenes, I could easily envision on the big screen and the shifts between perspectives are just like cuts between scenes in movies. The only technical challenge, in my mind, is where to edit things and break them up. I could see it as a trilogy not unlike the Bourne series. So yeah, pretty good read too.

So... Warlords of Draenor is the next expansion, huh? (Quasi-)Time-traveling after Garrosh to prevent him from altering the Horde and invading present-day Azeroth, or something. It's early. Details are sparse, and subject to change. But I have mixed feelings around it. It's an awesome idea. It's a horrible idea. Warcraft lore is a great strength of the game. Getting to experience some of that rich history, even if it's a parallel timeline or with protection of a dragonflight or whatever, is cool. It's a retread of history, though, rather than making totally new stories. That has novelty, but is sorta boring and less interactive than moving forward. It's a great opportunity for players, especially those that didn't experience the original Warcraft games, to see some of the history of the Horde. Yeah. So what about the Alliance? Uh... I've commented before that it felt like the Alliance lost more ground than it gained in Cataclysm. MoP already f

It seems there was a time when I wasn't so torn on books. I either liked them or didn't. I'm not so comfortable classifying this one, and I'm undecided on sequels at this point. From a technical standpoint, it's a bit lacking. The writing, pacing, and story are not the presented in the most engaging way I've seen. The typographical errors aren't everywhere, but there are enough to stand out. And given that it was sold digitally, I'm given the impression it was not given the full range of professional editing that novels which see print usually are. Overall, the story feels like it could have been an RPG campaign in a lot of ways - three main characters drawn together, like it or not, and wrapped up in the quest one of them is on. They don't always get along, and there's fighting early on, but they work together through the latter half of the book. Getting down to the story and the characters, I'm still divided. What's the term I'm

It's interesting how powerful music can be sometimes. One little song on the radio can remind me that I absolutely do believe in Love . Just not for myself. I've long described myself as a "romantic cynic."

Mmm. At a tipping point that could go either way and determine my mood over the next week or more - or so it feels. Yesterday was a quiet day. Just slow enough at work (and in between large projects) to instill a sense of boredom. I almost called it early when my co-tech came in, but lingered for one thing that led into another, and another, and ended up leaving after five - long after he had gone due to not feeling well. Because he wasn't on shift, I also fielded a couple calls last night. And outside the low-key costume walk at work that some participated in, I really wouldn't have known it was Halloween. The evening was sort of quietly unproductive online, though I appreciate some efforts otherwise, and I was already feeling a bit down by then. That's stretched into today. Just an edge of darkness overlaid upon a foundation of apathy. I wouldn't quite use the term depression yet, but I recognize that the path there from here isn't very long. Gaming tonight