Hockey? Yes.
More than any other sport this season (including football) I have watched and thoroughly enjoyed hockey. I guess it helps when your team you’re cheering for keeps winning!
How did I get so into hockey? And why the Bruins? Well first off, the main thing that got me into hockey… the fights. Most other sports, if two guys start laying into each other, they stop the game and break up the fight. In hockey, they stop the game, so they can finish the fight! It’s awesome!
So I made up my mind, I wanted to get more into the sport. But I didn’t know who to cheer for. There’s certainly no local teams to cheer for. And I didn’t want to arbitrarily just pick a team. So in 2010, I made a statement that before the season even began; before the first game was ever played. That the team that went all the way that year, not only wins the Stanley Cup, but more importantly: me, as a fan for life. That turned out to be the Bruins. Now they’re heading back to the Stanley Cup. Just swept the Penguins 4 games in a row and have as much momentum now as they’ve had all season. I really like the way we’re playing.
There have been some completely AMAZING moments in this season. The likes of which I haven’t ever experienced in ANY sport.
Like a comeback from 3 goals down in the 3rd period to win game 7.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN63Rc1roDc]
Or watching somebody get a broken leg blocking a shot for his team… then getting back up to finish the job.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h15m87WsCHQ]
I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like those two videos in any other sport in all the years I’ve watched. Hockey is a hardcore, no excuses, lay it all on the line contest. After this season, I think I’m hooked for good.
Reboot
It was time. The blog has a fresh coat of paint. It had been over a month since my last post, and even longer since I’d actually written any content.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to write about. And it wasn’t even that I was as busy as I’d like to think I was. Here it is, 40 minutes past my bedtime, and I’m FINALLY making a new post and re-themed the blog! It’s not because I’m any less busy. I worked until 8PM tonight. I just decided to finally make it a priority.
I had tossed around in my head how I want to use this blog. Before I went off the grid, it seems like traffic was picking up a bit. As more people started coming by and as I noticed some of the same people coming back I started to think about narrowing the scope of what I’m posting about. By far the highest traffic posts were my gaming posts. The stuff about Guild Wars 2 and retro gaming seem to get quite a few hits. The stuff about my old car and Luke don’t see near as much attention. I thought about making the blog here gaming exclusive.
However, I come back to my original philosophy with this blog. It is, and always has been, entirely self serving. This is my personal blog. At least as personal as I wish to be on a public forum such as this. It’s my corner of the internet, and I enjoy posting about whatever eccentric topic I see fit for the day. I intend to keep it that way, for better or worse.
What I may do is create a new blog that is 100% gaming focused. Maybe even exclusively retro gaming as that’s where my heart truly lies. I can cross post stuff here and there, but also get into the real macro of gaming there. Stuff that would completely bore absolutely everyone I know in the real world, but other obsessed geeks like me could find some value in. But one thing at a time. Let me get back in the habit of feeding this beast first.
I am re-committing myself. From here on out, I intend to make a post every day. Significant or not. Gaming related or not. It won’t last forever, I know. But it’s a good exercise in giving some love to the blog, and most importantly, capturing some of the more significant (small) moments in life and documenting them before I forget them and those thoughts and experiences are truly lost forever. For whatever it’s worth, this blog really has helped shape me as a person, as it helps me catalog my thoughts from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs. It helps keep me grounded, and not get swept away by the torrents of outside influence and all the ideas of who everyone else wants me to be. Hopefully every next post is more “me” than the last.
05.3.13Biebs Bytes: Episode 5
We talk about Brick & Mortar stores vs. Online stores. Will there be a winner, or can they co-exist? Thanks as always to Biebs over at JoshBieber.com for inviting me!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/qgqCJtCCudM]
05.1.13Reunited
No one else can possibly see what I see when I look at that car. That right there is my first car. Not a car like my first car. That IS my first car. It’s a 1979 Caprice Classic. To most people, you look at it, and you see a pretty cool car. But to me it represents so many things. And now it’s mine again, thanks to Dad.
I see history first of all. My history. A “flash before your eyes” kind of moment when I stop and really look at that car. The places I went as a teenager, the stuff we did, the friends I hung out with, my job, school. All of it comes rushing in too quickly to take it all in at once. It’s like a focal point where so many chronological paths cross.
I see freedom. I was never really guarded as a youth. For the most part I stayed out of trouble… my parents trusted me because of it… and because of that, I got to do what I wanted. So that car for the first time in my life could take me where I want, whenever I want. But suddenly my borders were expanded. I wasn’t bound by the city limits, or having to ride my bike home before the streetlights come on.
I see independence. No longer did I have to rely on my parents to take me places. I didn’t have to wait until Mom had to go to the store to see what new games were on the shelf. I could get a job, I could make money. And if I wanted to go to a movie, as long as I had gas and the money to do it, I could go.
I see people. A lot of people that bluntly aren’t a part of my life anymore. Nothing personal, we’ve just all lost touch over the years, which makes it all the more surreal to see this car again. After a while you gain a sort of acceptance that relationships aren’t what they used to be and you accept it. But this is just like an old friend that you haven’t seen for years, but you can instantly strike up a conversation with the moment you are reunited.
04.15.13Actual Adventuring
I’m not going to lie. A majority of the time when I’m playing Guild Wars 2 these days I’m on the Trading Post. But with some free time this weekend, I decided to actually PLAY the game. So I took off to resume my adventuring where I left off. Remember ages ago when I posted some screen shots from exploring Lornar’s Pass? Well, guess who’s still there. It’s a testament to what I believe is both an insane amount of content packed into the game, and the fact that my play is highly sporadic.
Here’s an example of an in-game event (above). I don’t remember this guy’s name. “El Satano” or something. I get around pretty good solo in the game, so I figured, what the heck, I’ll try to take him out. If I do, I get some bonus rewards for completing an event and the world in that area usually changes in some way that effects everyone. But when my first couple hits didn’t make a dent, and then he wholluped me for half my health in one swipe… I RAN! I’ll have to come back here when I have an actual group.
I play a Charr Mesmer, which means one of my special abilities is to create clones of myself. Basically shadows of my player with minds of their own. The damage they deal is low to moderate, and their health is low, so they don’t last long. But while I’m out on my own, I’ve found them invaluable for creating distractions, especially when I find that I have bitten off more than I can chew. If I time it right and using my elite skill, I can call up to 6 temporary allies to my side.
Choosing your weapons has a huge impact on how you play the game. I play with a Greatsword in my first weapon set. A huge two-handed sword that you don’t actually swing at anyone. Instead it fires bolts of energy at long range along with some other skills to summon illusions. My second weapon set is a sword in my primary hand, with a pistol in my off hand.
I really love this setup. I’m able to initiate a confrontation from a distance and start dealing damage as the enemy moves to engage me. When the foe gets into close range, I’ll use a shockwave to stun and blast him back, then fire away again and summon some illusions. When the foe gets back up and again starts to close in on me, I’ll switch to my sword. One sword skill allows me to perform several rapid attacks while invulnerable to attack. Once this skill wears off I’ll stun the enemy with my pistol. This gives me time to heal, or wait a second or two for my other skills to re-charge. With this arrangement I really feel like I can control the mobs. The backup from my clones helps provide additional attack power and soak up some of the hits as well.
Look at that ridiculous sword! It’s twice as long as my character is tall. He is possibly compensating for something.
Here is a sweet pirate lair. Amazing structures like this are all over the place in this game. When I came upon this there was a Quaggan in charge. A race that is known for anything but being cut-throat and devious. Apparently at one point, he told one of the other players in the game that he had always wanted to be a pirate Captain. So that player along with anyone else in the area at the time fought and took control of this outpost and made the Quaggan Captain. As time passes the broken pirate crew becomes restless and plans to retake the outpost. That’s what happened when I was there. And I’m proud to say that I was absolutely no help and the outpost was lost to the pirates.
I don’t remember what this place was. But it looked cool, so I took a picture!
So I finally decided that it was time to advance in my personal story. I went off to my next quest. And this SUCKED. My computer companion on this trip said, “Watch the flags and torches to know when the wind is blowing… you don’t want to get blown off this wall.” I probably got blown off that wall 20 times, easily. That or I just plain fell off. Guild Wars 2 is not a great platforming game, but they sure like to throw plenty of platforming at you with quests like this and jumping puzzles everywhere you look.
But at long last, I finally passed it. With much relief. Glad that’s behind me. Oh, look! I have some Trading Post cash to go claim!
04.14.13Trading is Going Well
I don’t get to play Guild Wars 2 properly most of the week. But I do take a little time to login, comb the trading post for stuff that looks profitable and flip it. So far I’ve made most of my gold that way. Started with just 3 gold, and now I’m up to 15 gold. That has taken a couple weeks though.
That said, it has a bit of a snowball effect. The more I make, the more I’m able to pour back into aquiring more items to flip. So each day I make a little more.
Not too exciting, but it’s fun to set it all up, go off to work, then see what it has done through the day.
But for now, I’ve got some free time, so I’m actually going to go PLAY!
04.12.13Biebs Bytes: Episode 4
Sorry I haven’t been blogging much lately. I don’t really have any legitimate excuses. Just haven’t felt too inspired lately.
Joined in another Biebs Bytes last night. The topic was “TV vs The Internet”. Hope you enjoy.
How much traditional TV do you watch, compared to Internet Streaming?
[youtube=http://youtu.be/KM2nIiNWQKE]
04.4.13Truthful Quote of the Day
If this were made today you would earn experience points, level up and then get some kind of cheat after a couple tries to help you through the level… because everyone is entitled to win! Well, not back then. These games made you cry.
The above is a quote from Mark Bussler’s “Classic Game Room” in his review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II for GameBoy.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/z1JydX9QsSI]
Games have come a long way. 20 years ago we were mesmerized by a few dozen textureless polygons in barren and featureless worlds. We could have epic 2D adventures unfold on a canvas only 256 pixels wide. Just like your grandparents lived without now expected amenities like air conditioning or cruise control, we played on without quick saves or wiki’s. We didn’t long for them, because we didn’t know any better.
Technology has enabled games to be some of the most amazing pieces of entertainment production available. Massive open worlds to explore, epic and cinematic story presentations, new ways of interfacing with that world and controlling your character that wouldn’t have been possible in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s. But strip away the technology, and what you expect out of a gameplay experience is fundamentally different than it was 20 years ago.
Let’s consider metagaming. Metagaming, in this context being what players in general expect from a video game, along with what developers produce to meet those expectations and sell games. You couldn’t release a game such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II above on any current generation hardware and expect it to be even mildly well received. It’s clunky, it’s slow, it’s repetitive, and it has a steep difficulty curve. Consumers expect polished and expansive games with tons of content. Many games don’t even include instruction manuals anymore. No big deal, because the first 2 hours of gameplay are tutorials. The game IS the instruction manual. Without any research whatsoever, I feel pretty confident generalizing that the average gamer today has a shorter attention span than they used to. Maybe that’s just something old farts like me say. But I’ll even include myself in that generalization. There are so many more mediums of entertainment and information now battling for our attention, that I don’t think it’s a far fetched claim to make.
Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not saying “New School” is wrong, “Old School” is the only right way. I just think that as the “meta” morphs the game experience slowly and over time, that eventually you reach a moment where you suddenly become aware and have to say to yourself, “How the hell did we get here?” Where your computer controlled side kicks can kill every enemy in a level, where you can sit idle and let your health re-gen, where you can insta-save at any moment so there’s no fear of dying, or perhaps most egregious, purchase in game “power” with real world money to make a game easier.
As a developer, your job is to create games that will sell. When games first became a profitable venture, it was the job of the developer to come up with a fun and compelling hook, then beat the ever loving shit out of you in short order. In the arcades, this kept people pumping quarters into the machines. Games that were intensely fun to get you playing, but quickly became incredibly hard to get you off the machine. The first home consoles basically fulfilled gamers’ desires to bring that arcade experience into their home. So again, developers gave gamers what they wanted. As home consoles became more prevalent, the market started to open up for games that were a more lengthy experience. You could easily sit on your couch for 30 minutes or an hour and enjoy a video game now. And again, with an installed hardware base already in place and the technological means to deliver those longer games; people first started to demand them, and soon expected them.
Over time, along with the technology, gamer’s expectations also evolve. What is first innovative, soon becomes standard. And once it is standard you become comfortable, even rely on it. Jump back in the evolution chain and it can be difficult to adapt to a game that doesn’t have some of the expected features of a more modern title. I experienced this with Final Fantasy III on the SNES. I was trying to figure out how to use Sabin’s “Blitz” command, and was completely lost. I didn’t have the instruction manual and there was no in-game tutorial. I was completely adrift for a while. I guess part of me just expected the game to hold my hand through that part, instead it opted to mercilessly kick my ass.
For me, some of the best games I’ve ever played are the ones that frustrated the ever loving crap out of me. Because you keep tyring, and when you FINALLY beat it, you feel like you have really accomplished something. I remember the first time I beat Ganon, got past Bald Bull, de-fused all the underwater bombs in time, and passed Stop N Go Station. All some of the hardest and most rewarding experiences at the time.
This isn’t a rant about how games aren’t hard any more. There are still hard games. This is about lowering the bar until the player can step over, rather than expect the player test their mettle. Regardless of a game’s difficulty there’s something I respect about a game that is unwavering in its challenge. I feel there’s some degree of measurable respect to be given to players who meet those challenges.
Games now aren’t worse for their crutches. Just a different kind of adventure. One that is perhaps a little more scripted and forgiving. But if you get a chance, pick up an old game. Grab your old Super C cart and see just how far you can get your first time through. It can be a humbling experience. And in the “say anything” age of the internet, it is my observation that we could all use all the humbling we can get. Myself included.
04.3.13Biebs Bytes – Hangout 3
Much more focused conversation this time, on a topic I could discuss for hours! Retro Gaming! Hope you enjoy this episode! And thanks to Josh at JoshBieber.com, check out his site for lots of cool Tech tips and such!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/r2UQQeAzxyI]
04.3.13Portable Gaming
