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Archives: April 2009

April 28, 2009

Heroes Ending and Beginning

by Frank — Categories: TV and Movies — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment
Greg Grunberg and Adrian Pasdar
Two heroes, changed forever?
Image by ewen and donabel via Flickr

 Spoilers!

Heroes ended another volume yesterday, closing a chapter in which our intrepid people with amazing powers became fugitives, struggled with their pasts, and came full circle to a point that makes a Company even more powerful than ever before.

There’s a lot of criticism that has been leveled at this season’s Heroes, from stale characterization to bad writing, to contrived storylines, but to be honest, the season overall did its job in exploring how the “normal” world might deal with people with extraordinary abilities. The story seemed to falter at times and in some respects left a lot to be desired (the whole “Rebel” storyline deserved much more than to have some kid behind it), but you can’t really complain with where things seemed to end up.

Here’s some things this season of Heroes actually did right, to counteract all those negative Nancies out there:

  • Peter and Hiro were “nerfed” - I’ve never had it sit well with me that taking other people’s powers and time manipulation had the potential to be the most dangerous in terms of trying to keep things within story without making it ridiculous. Unlike Sylar and Claire, whose unstable mind and lack of real physical threat respectively keep their powers in check, Peter and Hiro lacked any real drawback. By making Peter only able to absorb one power at once and making sure Hiro’s time travel has some potentially fatal consequences, the writers made sure that simply saying “why couldn’t they just do x” was as small a possibility as could be given.
  • Nathan achieved a role - Nathan’s character never really went anywhere on the series as far as I could tell. With an artifically given flight ability he wasn’t “sexy” enough power-wise to really explore anything, leaving his character as a politician as the remaining saving grace (and we all know how most geeks feel about politics). If the intent was to make him a sad, tragic character this season, this did it, and you absolutely had to kill him to seal the deal. Dying without any real chance to win against Sylar was unfortunate, but totally in line with closing the book on him as a person, but the way the season ended, there’s so much more potential to explore the character and its impact. It’s too bad he has to be dead in order for it to happen.
  • HRG got “real” - The problem with creating a character with some morally grey loyalties like everyone’s favorite Horn-Rimmed Glasses-wearing ex-agent is that you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Noah Bennett hadn’t had that happen until this season, when the baggage of his “normal” family was finally shed. The scenes which eventually lead to the deterioration of his marriage leave the door open for some emotionally jarring future episodes while freeing him up to pursue the grey area he’s always wanted to live in.
  • Sylar’s mental roller coaster - As I said before, the thing that keeps Sylar’s immense powers in check is the troubled past and events in his life that screw with his mental mojo. This season, though it focused on it a bit too much, explored that in detail, from daddy issues, to mommy issues, to identity issues, and finally, a curious pass at Claire that exposed a loneliness issue that has yet to be dealt with. I’m glad the writers finally settled in on Sylar being “evil” – I hated having a possible hero turn happen last season vis-a-vis Elle, and the show needs an anchor in the Villain column that sadly has not been filled very well with anyone else besides Sylar. The only issue now is that I think Sylar still possesses too many powers – in fact, more than the writers know what to do with – and hope that despite his current situation masquerading/thinking he is Nathan Petrelli, that something will be done about it.

I look forward to “Redemption”, the next volume in the series. It’s an interesting title and I wonder what things we might be seeing to typefy that. Until then, here’s to another season of Heroes.

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April 24, 2009

The Bright Side of WAR

by Frank — Categories: Gaming, Warhammer Online — Tags: , — 1 Comment
You are in my Heart till the sun will never sh...
I love the smell of cheesy images in the morning.
Image by Thai Jasmine via Flickr

 Lately there’s been a bit of a spat of the negative around the WAR community. You’ve got 3 different bloggers all putting down the pen or looking to other endeavors, a slew of articles met with constant skepticism, and a lot of pain and frustration from a patch that seemed to cause more problems than it fixed.

Over at Bootae’s Bloody Blog, an attempt to look at the brighter spots of WAR has been made. Of course, this is something that is right up this blog’s alley, because sure, the game has its problems, but there is plenty that works, despite its current issues.

So without further ado, here are 5 things that are right about WAR:

  • Casually Playable - of all the MMOs currently on the market, WAR is the one which provides the best mix of an overall goal to strive for and the lack of pressure to get there. There are MMO titles out there that compel you to login and sometimes spend more time than you have. WAR is no such title. It is, truly, a title where you can login, play for an hour, and log out, and still feel like you were able to get in some progress. People who have trouble managing their time will love WAR for its “come play for however long you want” attitude.
  • Mid-range PvP Concepts - Making a PvP title always brings with it an issue of having mechanics that are too intimidating to new players or put off people who can’t keep up with the hardcore. With experience as part of the RvR system in WAR, a gear-to-skill ratio that doesn’t make the best geared player the immediate victor, and a way for players across all levels to contribute in PvP situations, WAR has good, basic PvP concepts that make PvP natural to even the most anti-PvP player.
  • Developer Distance - The developers for WAR are among some of the most personable and social people. They have a passion for their product and work hard, but know that jokes, humor, and other such casual behaviors are all a part of the process. WAR’s developers have been knee-deep in the community, supporting blogs, fansites, and interacting with the community on a level no other developer can match. So while they have their work cut out for them, you’ll never feel like the developers are aloof or hostile towards player feedback – and you might even catch them on places like Twitter and Facebook, promoting their game.
  • Overall Popularity – Despite perceptions to the contrary, of all the recently released MMOs, WAR is in a really good place. Initial shrinkage of servers aside, WAR has healthy populations across most servers, and compared to other titles such as Age of Conan and Darkfall, WAR is doing quite well. While no one knows subscription numbers, look for WAR to either have a slight decrease or increase, and stabalize itself in the next couple months as new content arrives. Outside of the WAR community, WAR is considered second or third in terms of perceived subscriptions, so one can only hope it gets better. And with deep-pocketed EA in its corner (WAR having made up a lion’s share of EA revenue last quarter), you can count it having the support to continue.
  • Meaningful Progress - For a game that was perhaps released a bit too early for its britches, WAR has made immense progress. Re-introducing classes that were to be in at release, creating major tweaks to the RvR system, generating new content, and fixing bugs – all of these areas, WAR is at least doing decently in. The small minutiae of WAR may have many frustrating, and no doubt important, flaws, but the overall big picture shows WAR running the MMO marathon at a good pace. If the upcoming Land of the Dead does even decently well, WAR will have a foundation upon which to build on and can then divert resources into fixing existing gameplay issues into the next cycle.

So that’s that – 5 things that are good about WAR. Are there problems? Absolutely, and anyone who has put down the subscription has their own reasons and they are certainly legitimate on some level. But, in the overall scheme of things, WAR is doing as well as it can be in the current climate, and while we can’t really predict its future, I can say that it isn’t all doom and gloom out in WAR-land.

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April 18, 2009

Something Positive About Non-Geeks

by Frank — Categories: Internet, Social Geekery, TV and Movies — Tags: , , — Leave a comment
Britain's Got Talent
The UK’s got it…
Image via Wikipedia

 

So, here’s a break from the positive things for geeks….or is it?

Those of you who keep up with the intarwebz might have heard about 47 year old Susan Boyle, whose performance of Les Miserables classic “I Dreamed a Dream” on the Britain’s Got Talent reality show surprised, touched, and moved many people.

Seemingly overnight, the masses on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter have made Susan Boyle into the Internet’s temporary darling. Sure, there are the usual detractors, but moreso than in other cases, these are the folks who just might be saying what they are just to sound different, rather than wanting to be part of the adoring herd.

So why is it that Susan has become so liked and appreciated? Well, when it comes to the Internet generation and those of us who really are geeks (in the sense of the word that we are, at times, not the trendy people society wants us to be, and therefore, sometimes outcast), Susan’s performance means much more than just a really good singing rendition. No, Susan’s triumph on the scale of what it was, was, for 3 short minutes, a victory for anyone who’s been judged on the basis of their look or socialbility rather than on their raw talent. For others, it was also a stand against the superficiality of society – you know, the kind that throws carefully marketed modeling bodies, commercially contrived itemization, and other such stuff at us. The implied message of such things is that while you may choose to employ what’s being sold, there’a always the nod and wink to the back that you have to be “in” with the “in crowd” to ever have any real success with what you want to do. Susan shattered all of that, turning a crowd who was skeptical, even somewhat scoffing, into fans with an inspirational song that might have been more about her than about the character in Les Miz who sang it.

Let’s be honest here – in a few short weeks, days, or maybe even hours, Susan Boyle will be forgotten, filed away among the massive archive of the Internet as a brief moment of “hey, that was cool”. Cynicism will have its throne back on the World Wide Web shortly, but for now, an older Scotswoman has pushed it off, taken a seat, and gotten comfortable. While Susan’s fame will inevitably be short-lived, that doesn’t make what she did any less significant. For 3 minutes, Susan Boyle said, essentially, “I can”, and if you’ve ever had doubts about doing what you’re doing for fear of failing against the cold, hard stone wall of reality, look her up again. I think you’ll find your inspiration.

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April 14, 2009

Developer Porn Stars

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Leave a comment

Via Eating Bees, Kill Ten Rats makes an insightful post that creates a very eye-opening comparison for developers.

I do have to say, the points really do add up. I sympathize, you know, because I work in technology and that’s another field where there are professional, amateurs, and the occasional star who’s been around, is a household name, and that everyone has seen – only with clothes, that is.

Worth checking out.

April 12, 2009

Grumpy Old MMO’ers

by Frank — Categories: Gaming, Warhammer Online — Tags: — 2 Comments
grumpy
You wouldn’t like me when I’m grumpy.
Image by egg on stilts via Flickr

 Over at Warhammer Alliance, where I write things that are not always as sunny as this little space of the internet, I wrote a piece about the lack of pride in WAR these days, where it went, and what we can do to get it back.

On a side note from that particular article is the idea that people who’ve played MMOs for longer than a few years or so, and remember, with pain but fondness, the need to go retrieve one’s own corpse, are getting a bit frumpish in their old age. Glory days of unforgiving mechanics aside, it’s just darned difficult for the MMO geriatrics of the world to keep up with this new fangled attitude of gear and achievements.

As much as MMO grumps of yore would like to continue being so, let me introduce to you a bright ray of sunshine, as I always do.

For one thing, in your older age, aren’t you glad that your progress isn’t wiped out by a few careless deaths or a mechanic that perma-loses your gear if you don’t do something successful? After all, you’re not a spring chick anymore. I daresay some of you have found such inconvenient things as a “real job”, “bills”, “responsibility”, and for some of you, the dreaded “children effect”. With your all-nighter college days behind you, do you really have time to play a game that punishes you for being just a little bit unaware?

And what about the “massive” in massively multiplayer. Sure, you may shake your cane at those young whippersnappers who zip around you like they were playing Counterstrike and mash a button like they would suffer a heart attack if they didn’t. And yes, there are plenty of new generation MMO players that are just not the kind of people that would sit down with you for a game of canasta and roleplaying. But the charm of MMOs is the critical mass of people that are playing them. As long as you’re selective with your canasta and roleplaying partners in the vast world of MMO population, you should do just fine.

Finally, there’s the ease of participating in what we all play MMOs for, character development. Do you remember what it was like to raise your statistics in a game like Ultima Online? Sure, you relished the moment you gained a stat after countless whacks of the practice dummy in your house, but damn if it was hard to just get done. MMOs these days make things easy – so easy even a trained monkey can do it. You could be brain dead and still level up certain classes to your heart’s content. How convenient is that?

So the next time you’re having a hankering for the good old days, I have a bit of advice for you. Try to load your character with no armor or weapons and get into a fight. Then roll your face across the keyboard and when you die, bash your face on it repeatedly. You’ll get the same sense of burning inconvenience and physical pain from dying as you did in one of those early old school MMOs. 

 

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April 10, 2009

(MMO) Survey Says…

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Leave a comment

Sanya over at Eating Bees has a short survey for MMO players:

http://www.freesurveysonline.com/fso/AskSurvey.fso?Survey=16615&CheckID=14286

She’s writing a couple articles on a topic related to this survey, so feel free to help her out. Sanya is good peoples.

April 9, 2009

RP’ing It Off In WAR

by Frank — Categories: Gaming, Warhammer Online — Tags: , — Leave a comment
An example of shrugging.
If this guy can shrug off looking like this, so can you.
Image via Wikipedia

 As with any MMO out there, WAR has its frustrating moments. Whether it’s getting  a beatdown in a scenario, getting killed over and over again, or experiencing the long, hard grind to that next level and feeling bored, there are just some moments in the game where you just feel bleh about it all.

Don’t worry guys and gals – I feel it too. But I’ve discovered a way to deal with the pain that doesn’t involve multiple shots of alcohol or bingeing on Twinkies. And that’s roleplay.

No, I don’t mean THAT roleplay, gutter-minds, I mean the kind of in-character shenanigans and different personalities you created in that D&D game you played but will never tell anyone about. I’m talking about dropping yourself into the role of your toon at the very moment he or she is getting the begeezus kicked out of them and saying in chat that glorious death is imminent…again.

If you’re a dwarf, you can rush in, declaring how it’s a good day to die. Or perhaps you’re an elf and would prefer to haughtily declare that your teammates can go first so you can die without having their blood on your clothes. Or maybe you’re just a plain old human or goblin and you just have to weep about being sent in again by commanders and warbosses that don’t respect you.

You know that inevitable breakdown in friendly communications that losing a scenario or ORvR tends to do to a team? When people tend to get frustrated with one another over not being able to win their way out of a paper bag? Those are the times when RP’ing it off works especially well. Got two pissed off people arguing and typing more than fighting? Break up the hostile e-toughness with a little humorous comment about parents needing to wash their mouths out, or if you’re playing a Destruction race, to complain about some nonsense buzzing about “l2p” and “lol ur retarded” that is driving you more insane than you already are.

While I’ve continued to piss off people who simply take the game just a little too seriously with my weak attempts at witty repartee, there are always inevitably a few lols from the other members of the team, which makes the loss just a little bit easier to bear. And if you can make other people understand that it isn’t such a big deal and that they’ll live, all the more better.

Let’s be honest here guys – no one wants to lose, and even moreso, no one wants to lose badly. But a little bit of fun and RP’ish humor in the face of such a crushing defeat is a nice little bit of sugar to make the bitter medicine go down just a touch better. So have those witty in-character one-liners ready, kids – you might have to type them while a ton of AoE or DPS pain train classes are beating on you for the 500th time.

 

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April 8, 2009

Noble Tragedy (House Spoilers)

by Frank — Categories: Serious Business, TV and Movies — Tags: , , — Leave a comment
Lawrence Kutner (House)
That’s a White House smirk, you know.
Image via Wikipedia

 If you haven’t seen the latest episode of House, I warned ya.

Every so often an episode of a good TV show will come along that hits you straight out of left field. It points behind you and then takes the opportunity to punch you in the gut, causing you to double over while simultaneously declaring “that was a good one”.

The latest House episode was one of these.

Now, you’d think with the death of Kutner, one of the regular characters on the show, you’d see me diverting my thoughts to more somber things. But then, that wouldn’t be in line with this blog, right?

From a writing perspective, Kutner dying (and possibly being murdered) is unexpected but was appropriate, and not just because of the actor’s new digs (more on that later). Honestly, it was hard to peg Kutner for meaningful character development all season. While Thirteen has Foreman and her Huntington’s and Taub has his ongoing struggles with his spouse, Kutner had….well, we weren’t sure. As the most like House in terms of a risk-taker, Kutner was, like me, a bright spot of optimism in a sea of cynics, but aside from that, the depth of the character was never really explored. With Kutner dead, and now a possible mystery surrounding that, there is now more opportunity to explore Kutner in many different ways.

And the death of a character can bring out a lot of good potential things in the rest of the surviving characters as well. Some shows don’t really handle this too well (Star Trek: TNG). Others handle it quite beautifully (Babylon 5). Those that do better with it, learn to bring out authentic emotions based upon character templates they’ve already created, rather than going the “omg someone died” route and making a 180 with how someone would react. House treats Kutner’s death as another puzzle. Foreman wants to deal with it on his own. Taub, who by the way is acting strange for being Kutner’s closest friend, is at first apparently emotionless but is hiding his pain. There’s a lot of potential here, and while losing a main cast member has its drawbacks, the prospect of figuring out what the rest of the characters do is good for at least a few episodes.

You now realize the writers really did the audience an evil turn, as the previous episode, which had a superstition involving a black cat that curled up to people who were going to die, had a seemingly meaningless and light-hearted side story of Kutner being afraid of the cat since it curled up to him. That was the pointing of the finger before the punch in the gut. Well played, writers.

And shifting away from the actual show, let’s just say this really is a great new chapter for the actor. Kal Penn left the show for perhaps a more worthy cause, going into politics and working at the White House under the Obama administration. He could have left the door open for a guest appearance, but killing off his character cements the actor’s decision to leave his chosen field of profession and do something else. You might miss Kutner, but there’s no doubt Kal will be around for a long time to come.

So take heart – Kutner’s death? Tragic, but it good be a good thing – for everyone.

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April 7, 2009

Attack of the WiiMower

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , — 1 Comment
Wiimote 2 Player Icon
Wiimotes – Powering Investions everywhere
Image via Wikipedia

 

On Kotaku via Gizmodo comes an enterprising Danish guy who’s created a way for a lawnmower to be controlled via the Wiimote. Looks like the little bot uses bluetooth to send the signals and turning and moving the lawnmower is as simple as moving the Wiimote forward or side to side. Looks like this tops the guy who made a Wiimote control a multi-touch screen.

So you see, there’s hope for all of you people out there who have bought a Wii so that you could feel that your parents or granparents orother non-gamer people could understand your “weird” gaming habit. If your Wii sits abandoned like a lost puppy on the mean streets of the city because you don’t feel like waggling a remote on the screen for 4 hours at a time you might just get some use out of it.

Just imagine using your Wiimote to control your toaster, your coffeemaker, you refrigerator door, or for all you college kids, your local keg. The possibilities are endless. Of course, this means possibly dissecting the Wii and its parts like some science lab in high school, but hey, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, right?

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April 3, 2009

Forum for Tolerance

by Frank — Categories: Internet, Serious Business — Leave a comment
The raged selfportrait
You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…on a forum
Image by dhammza via Flickr

 Over at The Casual WAR, Josh decries the wonderful world of forums, frustrated and disheartened by the constant stream of negativity, ne’er do wells, and other such villainy over on forums in general.

It’s real easy to get discouraged by forums. After all, unless you’re a moderator like me, you don’t really have any real control over what you post, and to a certain extent, what you read. When people have the ability to post the kinds of things they do online with little to no retribution, things can get, well, interesting. This would be very much rectified if my patented “Internet Forum Assistance” system were implemented, where anyone posting something that would normally get them beaten down in an alley were they to say it to someone’s face would get them an electric shock.

Until then, you’re kinda stuck going to forums where the maturity of some people equals that of a monkey flinging poo. But hey – it’s not ALL bad. Thing is, community is created by the people who post, not by people like me who moderate. We’re just around to preserve an overall standard for what the forum’s creators want to have. 

Lots of people take the time to create very informed, well done, and interesting posts. Every so often you’ll even get a post that spurs an actual discussion that doesn’t involve a flamethrower, a pitchfork, and inexplicably, your mother. Thing is, these people deserve to be rewarded and recognized, and many good forums will do this by giving people an “attaboy” or even awarding custom perks like we do. Encouraging productive posting is much, much better than attacking all the non-productive posting.

Really, depending on your mileage, a forum is mostly good, solid posting, and you can choose what you want to read. Don’t like that a particular section is filled with trolls and the kind of language you’d expect from a motorcycle gang? Go to a more heavily moderated section and only read what you want. Think that you can’t deal with the fact that a particular poster does nothing but cause you a headache? Drop an ignore on them, or better yet, report the poster and let the forum monkeys like myself deal with them.

Forums are really cool and neat places. This sounds odd and at the same time sensible coming from a forum whore who has at least 5 forums he checks daily, but it’s true, otherwise they wouldn’t have superceded mailing lists for popularity and communication. But forums require some level of participation from its members to be as good as they are. You basically get what you put into a forum. Make some good posts, report the bad ones, encourage people who post like you do, and you get a more enjoyable experience. Don’t post, or get frustrated, or simply not visit, and while you are mentally better off for it, you’re really missing out.

Of course, this is completely different than not visiting a forum you can’t stand to read any of. I mean, let’s be real, if you hate pirates, you probably shouldn’t be on the National Association of Pirate Enthusiasts site. But as a geek, if you can tolerate other geeks and help create better community, I think you’ll find forums aren’t so bad.

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