Update on stuff
Wow, looking back at my last post ... January 26. I guess that is what being gainfully employed does to a person. Normally I might grouse about not having enough time for my own projects, but then again I am at a point in my life where I can appreciate a steady paycheck.
What have I been up to?
- Using (and loving) the PHP framework Yii.
- Still planning a new incarnation of my web-based gamebook engine WOTAN
- Getting back to my roots with Civ V, SimCity 4 and the Might and Magic (RPG) series.
- Wearing weird socks.
- Raising a four-year-old who enjoys raising hell.
- Thinking about the possibilities of Android app development.
- Breaking my brain.
- Being addicted to reddit, as usual.
Speaking of getting back to my video game roots, Civilization, SimCity and Might and Magic were the go-to games for me when I was in high school and when I first started college. Granted CiV and SC4 are a lot different than their earliest incarnations, but thanks to the joy that is Good Old Games, I have been enjoying M&M 1 and 2 almost as much as when I did after stumbling into my dorm room at 2:00 am after a night of under-age drinking at the bars. Now if only GOG would release the old Infocom adventure games and RPGs along with the SSI Gold Box games, and my nostalgia for past pubescent video gaming will be nearly complete.
Poop, poop and more POOP
For the past week, I have been hard at work building a full-featured Minecraft server, featuring the Hey0 Admin as well Google Maps-enabled web access to the server map through the c10t mapping client on an Ubuntu 10.10 virtual server in Virtualbox. Now I realize it was all pointless.
I guess I could host this sucker through our residential Comcast connection, but then I would have to buy a server, right? My desktop isn't terrible by any means -- I'm not entirely in denial if I claim that my Q6600/9800GTX+ is still in the high end of medium-range computers for a little while longer. However, running a Minecraft server over a wireless connection is not happening. Understatement, I know.
I figure in the short run, paying for a year's worth of a decent low-cost VPS is still going to be cheaper than building a brand new computer, and the Internet connection is going to be a whole helluva-lot better. So expect to see more about a semi-public SMP server coming this week.
I recently resubbed to Fallen Earth, but I am having a really hard time getting into the game. It is unfortunate, but I don't think I will be going past this month. I think my time with MMORPGs is almost officially over. Logging into WoW makes me want to vomit. I can't bring myself to log into DDO for whatever reason, and I feel to LOTRO as I do to watching paint dry. That's sad, because I really want to like them, I just lack the ability at this juncture.
Work on WOTAN has slowed to an almost standstill. I think it is just that time of year, though. That and virtually all of my time is accounted for, and what time I have had I have been doing silly things like setting up Minecraft Java/LAMP servers for fun and education. I refuse to call it quits, though. In all honesty, I am strongly considering changing the title to "Wotan Forever."
The main problem I am having right now with WOTAN, is rather bad, as it is not a technical or engineering problem. Rather, I am having a conceptual problem in trying to come up with different ways to present the game that will both set it apart from other online "story world" games and appeal to a wider audience. All of the ideas I have seem to indicate I should just set up a MUD server, but that is not what I want to do, either.
WAAAAA! It is hurting my brain. I would say I should drink more, but I have already developed a half-bottle-of-port-a-night habit. I like port wine the best, because it was the wine Saint James Episcopal served at communion when I was a child. Blood of Christ, baby - that's the real deal.
Regardless, work on WOTAN continues, but slowly, sloggily and lugubriously, in malasiatic fashion which, if you know me, will be entirely true to form. Boy, writing those shell scripts for CRON jobs to maintain a Minecraft server nobody visits sure is fascinating stuff, though!
I should probably just log into DDO.
Stuff that I am doing
So another month rolls past, the month of October in this year of Our Noodly One 2010. What did I do?
Well, I certainly didn't make any blog posts, that's for sure.
I made a feeble attempt to get back into World of Warcraft. Sadly, I just couldn't do it, though I may try again. Why? It's not that I like carpel tunnel syndrome or Barrens chat, it's just that ... oh I don't know.
Perhaps it is because I found a new virtual crack addiction in the form of Minecraft, or, as it must inevitably be called, Minecrack. Minecraft, I'd say, is well on its way to becoming the perfect computer game. Not to hyperbolize, but I fully expect it to cure cancer by the time it reaches beta stage. Then we'll have not one, but two cures for cancer.
I recently succumbed to the evil joys of gog.com, with a purchase and subsequent freebasing of Caesar III in the tinfoil shermstick which is my Toshiba netbook. No realli, you could fry an egg on the keyboard of this mother. Caesar III runs like a damn charm, however, earning it a place in the netbook hall of fame. If I ever decide to make one, but probably I will not.
I believe I realized why Steam and Good Old Games don't really bother me all that much as services, whereas iResist iTunes as much as possible -- the ability to redownload. Seriously, whilst testing out the iTunes service this past weekend, I decided to buy the season pass to The Walking Dead, and the thing that sticks out the most is that once I've downloaded an episode, that is it. No more. Nothing.
Now with Steam or GOG, I buy a game and it really is mine forever. Or at least as long as they stay in business. I think iTunes and their RIAA-MPAA-KGB-OMGWTFHAX overlords should take a hint from that model. If I decide to kick you $10 for Prince's misunderstood-classic Parade, the least you can do is allow me the ability to download it whenever I want.
Aside from all that, what else? Perhaps that I came to the realization that my game-buying habits are almost the exact same as the shoe-buying habits of crazed consumerettes? I buy them because they're on sale and they're "soo cute" and then put them on the shelf never to be worn. Or I suppose in my case I tuck them away in some obssessive-compulsively organized category in my Steam account. And butthole puckers just a little tighter.
September wrap-up – Amnesia, Civ V and hermetic lit 101
So ends another week. Yes, I am aware I have not posted in more than a month. However, I have been terribly busy with work and other such worthy activities. Food and shelter and all that.
In fact, I write this now sitting one our fair city's filthy light-rail lines, making my two-hour trek back home, ending another week of toil. While public transit has lost the luster of cheapness and eco-friendliness that made it my favorite choice of transportation options, the great thing about spending so much time commuting is that, while I have gotten relatively little gaming in, I have been reading like a fucking mad man.
I have gone utterly overboard on a Gene Wolfe binge, having now capped off the whole Urth of a New Sun saga, and very nearly ending the equally great Soldier in the Mist series - pure crack for a wannabe classicist like yours truly. And while I have become such an ardent Wolfe-ophile, I have decided to take a short break and I am currently enjoying a little jaunt through the Elysian fields of Romanticism with some Friedrich Holderlin and his epic, Hyperion. Because I have the time. Because I spend four hours a day, five days a week sandwiched between the scum of our fair city and I have to block them out somehow. But I do not wish to be unkind, so I will lose this topic.
I would not imagine to leave out how good a month September has been to me in terms of nerdeo gaming: this month has seen the release of both Amnesia: Dark Descent and the much-anticipated release of Civilization V.
If you are in the slightest way a fan of gothic horror along the lines of Mary Shelley, you must immediately purchase a copy of Amnesia. In fact, if you are at all a fan of excellence in the craft of creating video games, you must immediately purchase a copy of Amnesia.
I do not have enough good things to say about this game. This is the sort of game that I wish defined the Survival Horror genre – no guns at all to speak of, but containing the sort of spooky ghost story moments that will literally have you jumping out of your chair to find the light switch. I understand some people even have a hard time playing through this game in broad daylight.
Amnesia has all the ingenious puzzles of a good adventure game, and all the piss-your-pants moments of a great horror story. You must get this now.
Despite my adoration of Amnesia, Civilization V has been occupying the bulk of my time since it's release on the 21st. Despite that, I am not entirely sure what to say about it, other than I am very pleased where the franchise has been taken.
I like the hex maps ... I like the abolishment of unit-stacking ... I like that navies actually mean something in any game with more than a puddle on the map. War is far more interesting to me in Civ V, which I will heretofore refer to as ciV, like any other feckless hack this age is ripe with. But I digress.
I actually like how wars have been playing out in ciV, yet so far it also the game design seems to have been created in a way that coddles the inner builder in me. It seems to me like making a Civ game that simultaneously appeals to war-mongers and their carebear cousins, the builders, quite a feat. But it is one that ciV has managed.
I would be remiss, if I did not mention I have completely fallen in love with the City States mechanic in the game. In my current game, I am playing as Alexander (Greece) and taking advantage of that civ's city state bonus to let the AI create both my massive army and my massive culture. All I have to do is run around and beat people up who step out of line. Napoleon, I am looking at you!
I will try to write more in coming weeks about ciV, but considering I haven't made a post in a month, I would advise you to not hold your breath.
A little progress, emphasizing “little”
Schleppery -- Muse, sing to me of the schleppery of Isis' son Fortuente,
lugubrious, doomed, that cost the Oregonians countless food stamps,
hurling down to the House of Fail so many fat bowls,
great kind-bud bowls, but made their buds ash,
feasts for house-plants and the compost,
and the will of Odin was moving toward it's end.
(With apologies to Robert Fagles, of course.)
Project WOTAN continues, however it does so in a rather halting and stunted fashion, as is my wont. I suppose I should have factored in the summer's inevitable doldrums when setting my deadline. I recall I did have the thought that July-September can be a trying time for a habitual computer user without air conditioning.
Essentially, I have gotten nothing done in perhaps two weeks now. I have done some, but very little and it mostly revolves around template-system code debt. Because the one I originally wrote was utter garbage, and so I spent the bulk of yesterday consolidating methods and refining the template class. Honestly, if I wasn't so far along, I would probably scrap MJOLNIR and start yet another iteration based on the frameworks Kohana or CodeIgniter. Using one of the twain is definitely the plan for my next project.
From the outset, I wanted to reinvent the wheel for WOTAN because I am still learning not only PHP, but programming in general. The unforeseen difficulty I have run into using WOTAN to learn basic programming concepts lies in the fact it is really quite a large undertaking for one newbish person. I am far enough along that I can already see this has been a very valuable experience. The next project will most likely be a smoother process and by using an extablished framework, I'll get to see what I did right and what I did wrong in my own.
I have decided to eventually make WOTAN open source, however right now I am just trying to focus on getting the core engine and features in a working state. As of now, I plan on showcasing WOTAN on The Wizard's Tower (rather than make that site a Lone Wolf-like gamebook series) and focus on developing that site with engine development occurring more as a side-product. Eventually I will release it on a public repository with an open license. I am not worried, however, in setting any dates for that release, as my first goal will be to make TWT a working WOTAN-powered site first, then prepare the code for public later.
So here I am doing my best to stay motivated. And I think I may take a cue from that post I linked and work on some icon art for the game now that I have tamed the template beast more to my liking. I plan on using the CSS sprite technique on them, so that is something interesting to do.
Lego Universe: totally sweet or totally sweetest?
I am the father of a small boy. So I can tell you Lego Universe has been on my radar for most of this year, at least. I just came across a preview written by Jon Wood at mmorpg.com based on a LU presentation at E3.
I guess it makes sense it would be thought of thusly, but I don't really think of LU as a "kids" game, per se. Perhaps I only assumed it, but I was under the impression it was going to be an "all-ages" affair, after the same spirit as the physical blocks.
However, yes, it does appear to be marketed to kids ... check out the slightly-creepy subscription pitch:
What better way to give your kids the constant action and fun they crave than with some LEGO Universe game time? This universe goes on forever, and the possibilities are endless as kids can team up to quest together, or visit each other to see the cool stuff they’ve built on their properties. Find the subscription model that’s right for your child.
Because the constant action I want to give my kids leads to a life of repetitive-motion injuries. Why let the TV baby-sit, now we have virtual worlds!
At any rate, OK, it's a kids game. But I have a feeling I'll be getting it anyway ... for my son, of course. Of course, I'll have to figure it out in order to help him. Of course.
LOVE’s first expansion released kinda
The "alpha" release of LOVE's first expansion AVAIL was released today according to the LOVE fansite Gaming Love. Site administrator Iamacyborg wrote this about it:
Matter Mixing:
Players can now mine materials, and create automated mining platforms to gather materials. These materials can then be combined using the new matter melder's to create new effects, like fire, smoke or ice.Effects:
The created matter effects can then be used in various ways. Tokens can be upgraded with effects, and the effects themselves can be used as grenades, either player based, or defence based, using the new enhanced radar as a trigger.Along with a whole host of new, and enhanced features.
So what is the deal with calling AVAIL an "alpha?" I thought software at the alpha level wasn't ready for paying customers yet? Then again, is it any different than projects which are continually in "beta?" Ambiguous terminology aside, the changes sound interesting. Maybe I'll have to hunt down someone for their friend-account info ... MWUHAHAHA!
Another Crippled Sorcerer-King
Hi, it's me. Just checking in with what I have been up to.
So, I have accomplished almost literally nothing in the past week, whether that involves working on my PBBG project WOTAN or even merely playing a game. I have been watching my four year-old son alone this whole time, and he does make it literally impossible to get anything done.
He has a special talent for picking up on when I am trying to do something other than mindlessly reading reddit. Like right now: I don't know if he is psychic, but he was just happily keeping to himself and playing with his toys and now that I have started this post he is magically pulling at my leg demanding my full attention.
Elric, last king of the Dragon Isle
I have also chosen this past week to "dry out" as I believe the saying is. Of course by that I mean I have ceased my famously-prodigous reefer consumption for a while. It is a necessary thing every now and then, like taking a vacation. Sadly, I am also the opposite of the typical pot-head stereotype in at least one regard: I utterly lack motivation to do anything when "sober." I suppose that is why I have loved marijuana from the first time I tried it, to me it is like Ritalin and Prozac all rolled into one. Sadly, like those drugs, it also has its downfalls but I chose it because it least it isn't as dangerous (or potentially addictive) as them.
So my ennui is very high, and my motivation is very low even without the distraction of a young child. Fortunately, I have a solid roadmap for WOTAN and I will be getting a short break from parenthood tomorrow so I hope to finish the basic Item module. It is true, I have relied on MJ a bit too much to keep me going, so a pet project of mine is to attempt to motivate myself and stay focused without the use of this crutch.
Is it any wonder my favorite non-Tolkien fantasy character is Elric of Melniboné? Unfortunately for Elric, he proves he is utterly unable to sustain himself without his drugs or his famous sword. But I think I'll be able to manage. I'm just more of a dick and a bit less patient without my Stormbringer.
Now, I do not plan on quitting outright. I find "quitting" most habits to be an utterly asinine concept. I used to smoke cigarettes quite a lot, and now I almost never smoke them. However, I keep a pack in the cupboard and when the mood strikes I will have one. I find it much more beneficial to merely "stop" than to add all the self-defeating stress and pressure of the feckless absolutist concept of "quitting." I am also very much not a fan of 12-step programs; I find all they are really good for is teaching you how to be a submissive cretin, not give you the strength, willpower and discipline needed to actually face your chemical demons. People who are 12-step acolytes may be "sober," but at the cost of thousands of little deaths each day. If I ever needed a program for an addiction, I would hope it would teach me to take control of myself, not surrender it to an outside idealogy.
And then again, even when smoking two packs every day, I didn't identify myself as a "smoker." I merely was a person who happened to enjoy smoking. And I still do, though it is an activity (albeit a disgustingly smelly one) I engage in perhaps once a week at best, perhaps a half-dozen times every few months.
And so it will likely go with the MJ. Then again, cigarettes never produced the beneficial effects on my brain chemistry that MJ does, so the analogy doesn't exactly fit. And if I find I, like the doomed hero Elric, am absolutely unable to function without some sort of chemical intervention I will always choose MJ over what I consider to be (if not actual) dangerous prescription drugs. So I may choose not to "stop," either. If so, I wonder if I will find myself impaled upon a stalk of hemp after witnessing the birth of a new world which I helped create after destroying my world? Not to give away the ending to the Elric saga or anything. See I can be evil too! Mwuhahaha!
Anyway, my work has been set back a week, but so what? I have been having doubts I will make my August deadline anyway, despite its looseness (notice I have never made a specific date, such as August 1st or August 12th or the like?). But if my release of WOTAN ends up being in September, I won't be terribly upset with myself.
Coming back … again and again
Well, I've taken another couple month break from the old blog. In fact, I've taken a couple-month break from life.
I wish I could say I spent the bulk of January and February in a sensory deprivation tank a-la William Hurt in Altered States, but alas I'm much more boring than that. I spent a few weeks visiting Los Angeles and that was fun. I wasted a solid month-and-a-half being way too old to couch surf but fucking doing it anyway; I wanted to get in touch with my inner hippie.
I have also been having some familial issues, and now they are in the process of sorting themselves out. Of course I will not go into all the gory details here, but lets just say I could have a pretty good treatment for a TV drama if I cared to write it. Everybody is learning, growing, sharing and whatnot.
I do have no compunction relating my gaming experiences herein, as that is the purpose for which this blog exists. Sadly, those experiences are also rather dull.
Sucker for a sale
I spent more money than was prudent during the weeks-long gang bang that was the Steam Holiday Sale. However, I got loads of sweet games for hella cheap (to use the patois of my northwestern American home), mostly comprising games I already wanted but was too stingy to buy at full price.
The winners in the "waiting-for-a-sale-and-already-knew-I'd-like-it" category are Children of the Nile, Company of Heroes and Day of Defeat. I scored on these and I am thrilled about it. Sadly I haven't been able to play Children of the Nile as much as I want and no matter how hard I try I just suck (big-time) at Company of Heroes (though I still love it), but I went on a Day of Defeat bender for a couple weeks and loved every minute. Avalanche is my favorite map so far, though I have developed a bit of a Donner fetish.
The winners of the "impulse-buy-and-didn't-care-for-it" category are Zombie Shooter 2, Evil Genius and Killing Floor. I can't say I cared for any of these, and my reasons are various. I may still enjoy playing Evil Genius someday, but I couldn't get past the tutorial which made me want to punch things -- I believe I had issues with its rather glacial pace. I just can't get into Killing Floor for no particularly good reason (which could change in the future, however) and I outright dislike Zombie Shooter 2. If I would have spent more than $2.50 on ZS2 I would have felt completely cheated. While I don't really dislike Killing Floor or Evil Genius, if I had a second chance I probably would not bother to buy either.
Fly Safe, Capsuleer
The surprise hit of the sale was a brand new $5 EVE online account. I am happy and nerdy to say I have been glued tight to the Verge Vendor region of New Eden since around Christmas, learning the many vagaries of asteroid mining. While technically not a "new" account -- I activated a trial account I originally made in 2007 -- I have been enjoying EVE nearly every day for the past two months and feel as though I have finally "found" an MMORPG I can truly enjoy.
I put "found" in quotes, of course, because I have actually played EVE Online off-again-and-on-again since 2006; I find it a bit strange I only now have actually taken to the game. In my previous attempts to grok the game I always knew there was something about it that I like and enjoy, but I suppose until I tried being a full-time miner I didn't actually know what that something actually is. So right now that something is mining and mineral trading, which I am utterly cracking-out on. Dangling preposition FTW.
And now with the recent announcement of the SimCity-like aspects of the upcoming Tyrannis update, I will probably be hooked for at least another several months, if not longer. If you want to look me up in-game I'm Dank Fortuente and the asteroid belts of the Aidart solar system is currently my main stomping grounds.
The only other MMORPG I am dabbling in at all is Dungeons and Dragons Online, which continues to be a treat now that I can play sporadically without worrying over paying a regular subscription. I don't get to play terribly often but I have been working on a Drow Exploiter Ranger which I named Emmil Cioran. His bio reads only "ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart;" perhaps "reality is a creation of our excesses" would be more a-propos to the venue, LOL.
Moving On
Well, it is nearly time for me to wrap up this post. So I will leave by saying that I am still here, still building cities and RPing like a nerdy dork, even still working on my PBBG, despite various hurdles and setbacks. I suppose I could go on for longer about my love affair with MySQL InnoDB and foreign keys, but I will bore you with that in another post. Until then blaze high -- you know I will.
Setbacks, Delays and Trying to Rise Up
Well, the inevitable has happened: I decided to push back my beta "launch" (snicker) for Project WOTAN to March, and quite possibly April or May, of next year.
I did virtually zero work on it in November as I was engaged in the cruder work of making money. Working 14-hour days out in the wilderness with bare access to electricity, let alone the Intertubes, is not conducive to making progress on an ambitious PBBG.
Even if I were able to make up the time this month, alas that is also not happening as I returned to find myself soon to be divorced, separated from my child and homeless leaving me scrambling to find a way just to stay alive. Again, not exactly an ideal situation for creating a browser game.
Rest assured, however, that unless my body washes up on a beach half-eaten I will continue to persevere in my effort and send Gungnir flying true. Of course, the inevitable mediocre anonymity the site will enjoy is not exactly a great incentive, but at least I will be able to say I finished it.
I have continued to develop my long-term idea for the project, and I am not sure if I will be able to make a MUD-for-the-web idea work; I'm not sure how well it would work even with more people (who know what they are doing) working with me. It is a dream, perhaps someday it will be a reality, but I do not believe so with this project.
Rather (long term), I am focusing on creating more of a combination of a single-player RPG and a social networking site. This was the original idea, I envisioned something maybe vaguely similar to Guild Portal. Rather than a guild organization and communication tool, though, it is a place to play and create text adventures as well as store the character(s) you use in the adventures and communicate and organize with others making and playing them.
To that effect, I am going to be setting up the main site for the project in the near future. I will need to get a VPS, and while at the lower levels they are not expensive, it is not exactly an expense I want jump right in and sign up for considering I am a very-soon-to-be homeless person. But running the game, especially how I envision it as a finished site, demand it. In fact, considering operating costs and my lack of a solid business plan, it's enough to make me hope for anonymous mediocrity.
I shouldn't underplay the business aspect of the game too much, but that is part of my extreme self-effacing nature. I actually have some really good ideas about how to make it pay for itself - none of them are original, but that also means I am picking from established practices.
Blogs I Read
- Brian Psychochild Green
- Elder Game
- Fabled Lands
- Kill Ten Rats
- Killed In A Smiling Accident
- OSG1 – Online Strategy Games
- Pumping Irony
- Ralph Koster
- Stylish Corpse
- Tish Tosh Tesh
- Troll in the Corner
Browser Games I Play
Fortuente Pages
Game Sites I Like
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