Game loads: World of Warcraft

Yeah, you knew it was coming. If you despise World of Warcraft (or MMORPG’s in general), maybe you should stop reading here if you don’t want to throw up.

I started playing in September 2005, right when I started my job (where both my coblogger and I still work) because about half of the employees there played religiously, so I figured, why the hell not.

At that time I had been exploring multi-user dungeons, which are basically text-based MMORPG’s, but I guess WoW sounded more appealing when everyone got into talking about it. It was a nice sort of ice-breaker, too — I’m not a big initiator of smalltalk, so actually having something real (if you can call it that ) to talk about was a good way to pass the time.

You could probably view my track record with WoW as a tipsy relationship. You could say we went out for about six months, but then we got bored of each other and separated. You could then say we got back together a few months later with more passion than ever — I was always bad at sticking to one character, but during this passion period, I played only my mage for about three or four weeks, getting him from the mid-30’s to 54 — which was the largest spike in our relationship.

You could also say that once the effects of the spike dwindled away, our relationship again grew repetitive and boring, so we took another break — one that lasted about two months.

And now, after the serious lows and the serious highs, it’s almost like we’ve landed right in the middle — right at the sweet spot. I like to play it enough to maintain my characters, but not enough to cut myself off from all the other good games out there — it’s an open relationship.

I’ve given up on getting better gear for my 70 (the mage I leveled in such a hurry for Burning Crusade) because of the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King. Instead I’m just leveling a handful of alts, trying not to rush through them.

These include an 11 priest, a 32 druid, a 40 warlock (free mounts ftw) all on the same server.

I would review the game itself instead of my history with it, but reviewing MMORPG’s is a touchy subject — my opinions would probably be way more biased than usual, and (not even as an affect of that) people would probably exaggerate the review depending on their attitude towards MMO’s.

And apparently because it’s Christmas, my family and I are going to do family things like make waffles and play Monopoly. So I should wrap this up.

Blegh.

(not at the waffles — waffles are the pwnzage)

Congratulations! New Record!! +56 Views Per Day! .

Yesterday we broke our old record of 45 views! For the past 2 1/2 weeks this site has been hitting a traffic spike! Its remained consistent in the 35- 45 views per day range, which is really odd considering that we haven’t done all that much to advocate ourselves (with the exception of getting a small plug on WoW Insider, courtesy of Skoh-Fley). So I would just like to dedicate this post to our readers, (who also might be just horny people who happen to come across the picture of the whale penis link in my Revolutionary Link Fest 2007 post. Either way, to us, this seems like a big mile stone and we would like to thank our readers! Woot!

kthnxbi!

-Neverhitboxes

EDIT UPDATE:

Seriously, whats going on? The traffic spike hasn’t slowed! We just hit 66 today! We’ve set 3 consecutive records for the last 3 days! This is awesome!

Themey goodness

I guess this deserves a post.

You have no doubt noticed (unless this is your first visit, in which case, I welcome you) that our theme is a little different.

Okay, well, it’s a different theme, it just looks similar to our old one. Commentator, friend and all-around swell guy Giga pointed out that the old theme was a bit cramped in terms of displaying post content in an at-a-glance sort of page organization manner.

So this one takes the more streamlined blog look, with posts listing downwards ’til they can’t list no more (or until they reach 10 in number, whichever comes first). It kind of permits easier skimming, instead of putting each and every post up on the pedestal that is (was) its own page.

We still rebel a bit with the one-column layout; imho it helps to establish a more content-centric blog. Instead of looking like a whole website’s front page, it just looks like a big list of stories and thoughts, with some sprinkles of navigation down at the very bottom.

I guess that’s it for now. I’m also semi-working on the next game load.

Well, mentally.

Oh, and the theme is called ChaosTheory, and I wish I could credit the author(s), but no names are anywhere to be found.

Staring.

Hey alright guys, this is a true story thats original to this blog only- AND – it happened today! Hurray! Ok, so today I got out of my piano lessons at 4:30pm. There is a bank next building over. So usually my Mom picks me up afterward in the parking lot, (yeah she picks me up I can’t drive- cue laughter whatever) I noticed that she wasn’t waiting there so I walked around the parking lot just to make sure. As I was passing by the back entrance of the bank- there were a few people inside staring at me. I didn’t think of it much at first, I was calling home and walking around in a circle. After I finished getting off the phone, the people who were staring at me were gone from the windows and there was a woman who was locking the back door. She gave me a odd/fearful look and so I just gave her the “whatever” expression and walked off.

So it usually takes my Mom about 10 minutes to get to where I was so I took out 1984 (which is a good read, I recommend it) and using my backpack as a pillow, laid down and read on the small strip of grass that was in front of the bank. About 1 1/2 minutes later, this cop car pulls up beside me (because the lawn strip was close to the parking lot) and I looked over and was like, “wtf”. I get up and the cop gets out. He was a bald guy of about 30+ years.

Cop: “Can I see your ID?”

Me: “Ah yeah, sure.” [pulls out student ID]

Cop: “Alright” [Takes ID, scribbles some notes]

Cop: “When is your birthday?”

Me: “February 26th, 1990”

Me: “Can you tell me whats going on?”

Cop: “Well, last week this bank was robbed by a young man, who was thin, had dark hair, lightly tanned skin and a black bag. Before he robbed the bank he hung around the back parking lot area for a few minutes before he went in and held the place up. And the people at the bank reported that there was a guy walking around the back of the bank who matched the suspect who robbed the bank last week.”

Me: [Thinking, oh shit, because I totally match the description, I was carrying my black messenger bag AND I was making phone calls while just walking around the back of the bank]

“Oh………funny you never hear things like that….”

Cop: “Yeah, you look like the guy, but you’re not the guy. The real guy was about 20 years or older and everyone was sure he had a wig on.”

Me: “Really? Man, thats pretty crazy.”

Cop: “Yeah, sorry to alarm you or anything.”

Me: “Oh its no big deal, but you scared me there for a second.”

Cop: “Sorry about that….by the way, you waiting for someone or what?”

Me: “Oh yeah I was waiting for my Mom to pick me up- I just got out of my piano lessons like 10 minutes ago over there.” [points at building]

Cop: “Hm. Well take it easy- now I just gotta go tell the people inside its ok.” [laugh]

Me: “Good day!” [at that moment my Mom arrives and I jump in and drive off without any other hassle- oh and I say good day a lot to adults because I’ve worked as a cashier at a few jobs and I’m so used to saying it]

Overall it was a jarring experience. I had no idea why those people inside the building were freaking out and locking all the exits, but now I do. XD It actually crossed my mind that maybe they thought I was attractive or something and they just couldn’t keep their greedy eyes off me- Ha! Wow! Totally wrong!

-Neverhitboxes

-Staring does not equal hotness. -Neverhitboxes

Mad at emotion

Pretty much anyone who has watched any family sitcom or movie knows that a lot of the comedy that comes out of things like that is through certain main characters getting frustrated, angry or fed-up with someone or something.

Maybe that’s a little vague. Let me give an example.

Right now Are We There Yet? is on TV, and I’ve been passively watching it. One of the scenes involves the two kids Nick (the main character, played by Ice Cube) is taking care of pretty much stealing his car. They trick him into getting out of the car, then they lock the doors and speed around the parking lot.

Ha-ha, comedic scene. That’s what I want to talk about.

As a side-note, I have nothing against this movie; it just happens to be the most handy example.

I can only assume, and I guess I can understand, that most people find those kinds of things funny. But for some reason, I just don’t. Instead of laughing or just saying “Those silly kids”, I kinda hate them at the moment. As much as if they were doing that kind of stuff to me.

I don’t know why; I just hate them. It’s like I get too attached to the characters or something. I understand their feelings too much.

And I’ve got to say, it really bugs me. I can no longer watch Everybody Loves Raymond comfortably — I admit, it was getting old anyway, but it’s just so annoying now. Every time Marie makes a passing insult at Debra, or every time Debra does something crazy to Ray — like throw a spoonful of brownie mix in his face for making a stupid remark — I just get so angry.

It’s like I’m the victim, like I just got a spoonful of liquid chocolate in my face just for saying something stupid by accident. I mean, imagine if that was you. Imagine if you accidentally said something stupid or insulting (we all have) to a spouse (or friend), and they just gave you this death stare and threw a spoonful of chocolate in your face.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be hella pissed. I mean, that would be totally unnecessary. I’d get so mad, I don’t even know what I’d do to cool off.

So why is this funny on TV? I can understand that things on TV can be funnier than similar things in real life (believe me; I’m a hardcore Seinfeld fan), but I don’t know about this whole anger thing. As far as I know I haven’t met anyone else who has this problem (not that I ask upon meeting someone or anything).

It’s a real burden on a person, relating to a fictional character’s emotions. I go through so many internal mood changes so quickly it’s ridiculous.

What’s weird is that I never show them, though. In fact, sometimes it’s the opposite: I’ve often been accused of looking depressed or angry when I’m just in deep thought.

And I like being in deep thought. Because all the emotions in deep thought are my own.

That, and Deep Thought calculated The Answer.

Thinking about thinking

You ever have those periods of time during your day, when you don’t have quite enough time to start doing something (like playing a game) but you have too much time to just wait out?

I’m totally having one of those periods of time right now.

So I can finally follow the trend and say I have dug one up from the archives. This one balances itself out — it’s a little deep (psychologically), but short:

The human mind always thinks ahead.

It’s why excitement is a greater emotion than happiness; why fear is a greater emotion than disappointment. It’s why we love Fridays but hate Sundays.

If our minds never thought ahead, we’d never do anything that would benefit us in the future.

In example, we would never make shelter unless it rained. We fear it will rain, so we make shelter.

In retrospect, it seems like one of those “uh, duh!” things, but maybe it’s just one of those things you know but never really realize. Maybe read over the second sentence more carefully if you’re not sure what I’m talking about.

I’ve still been meaning to write some more Game Loads posts, but having lots of games to play makes it easy to skip out on writing about having lots of games to play.

Meh, I’ll get around to it.

PRE-PUBLISH EDIT: Apparently, the first (or maybe dominant) tag called “fear” ever used on WordPress was actually “F.E.A.R” (the game), so when I try to tag this post with the emotion, it kindly tags it with the game instead.

Um, thanks WordPress?

GameOver……..LOAD.

Ok, so this past month has been crazy! So many games have released in such a short frame of time! Its insane! On top of all this, I have just received a new computer from my brother, (thank you Jimmy!) this has opened up a WHOLE new world of opportunities! Now I can actually play games that I was previously not able to on my old computer! (pictures of my rig soon to come!)
So first off, I made a “pact” with Skoh-Fley. If I got a new computer or if I reformatted- I would start playing WoW (World of Warcraft for the acronym inept) again. So I have new computer so I started playing WoW again- and man is it awesome! It runs way above 60 FPS virtually all the time now! When I first started playing WoW- I thought it was “ok” because not only did it look ugly on my old computer- but it just seemed like boring complex game. Second time around, my opinion has changed- the game is really fun and addicting! All my friends play it and it looks great!

Now, not only do I get to play WoW again, I can play HL2 (Half-Life 2 for the people who hate all things good) at a decent frame rate finally! No more blurry ass textures! No more slowdown! Yay! Skoh was nice enough to lend me the Orange Box, so I have been basically playing through HL2:Episode 1+2 and Portals. I still cant get over the initial fact that my computer can now run these games. Whenever I read about a new PC game coming out I was like- whatever, I won’t even be able to play it anyways- BUT now thats not the case! I can totally play virtually any game! HELL YEAH!

___________________________________

Title: “Headhumpers.”

So now with that update and excitement out of the way, I can fill you in on a story! If you clicked on this story and saw the title and expected to find porn, well, there is none. This story will only really interest the people who played HL2:E1 or likewise.

Its late at night, on a Wednesday, I had just finished a episode of my podcast (PopCast- soda reviewing). We reviewed Redbull and we ended at like 10pm. Totally not a good idea to drink a full can of Redbull and have it already be 10pm because I felt like I should still stay up and do something. Naturally I booted up HL2: Episode 1 since my rig can tear it up. Bad idea. I’m not really a wimp, but when it comes to tense games like F.E.A.R and Doom III, I hate them. Being scared sucks and it makes the game not fun. So I’m playing HL2 in the dark, with headphones at what is now 1am. Worst thing ever! I was scared shitless! There is a part in HL2:E1 where you are in an underground parking garage and its pitch black except for what your flash light shows. The thing is that the flashlight dies out after like 25 seconds of being continuously on and you have to turn it off to recharge it! So I’m running around seeing tons of zombies, headcrabs and other shit coming at me- and then my flashlight dies and I can’t see anything but I can hear all of their fucking zombie moaning noises! So I’m freaking out trying to find a place I can at least run too but I can’t see anything so I end up running into either more zombies or a wall! Ah! I hate it so much! I had to use all of my determination to get through that level. And after I stopped playing I was paranoid that those goddamn head crabs would start pouring into my room or zombies would be hanging around my bathroom. Never again. Never again will I drink caffeinated drinks, stay up late and play scary games in the dark at 1am. Terrible idea. They don’t mix. Its like what police officers are always telling teenagers. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t drink and play survival horror games at night.

-Neverhitboxes

I still have nightmares about that cat……

Shouldering time

This couldn’t have been more horribly timed.

As some of you may know, I’m in the middle of a slew of awesome games right now. There are just too many I need to play — it’s like when two of your favorite shows are on at the same time. And, uh, you are twenty years in the past. Where, y’know, you can’t download/stream/browse on demand for/digitally record them.

But watch your back — the gaming gods get mad at you when you play with fire — I’m proof of that.

Today, my DS broke. Broke is a rather vague word, so I’ll explain.

Only a couple days ago, I noticed my L button wasn’t functioning as smoothly as it’s supposed to — one of the games I’ve been playing lately is Megaman ZX (which I haven’t covered in my rounds yet), and one of the fastest ways to travel is by using Model Hx (the biometal of the wind) to dash-jump, air dash, and repeat. Both of those moves require the L button (dash), which is how I first noticed it (of course, that constant use probably didn’t help, but hey, I didn’t do anything wrong).

Instead of being able to press it from the edge, I had to hug my finger around the top of the DS and push it down, and pretty hard.

Yesterday, it stopped functioning altogether. I was playing Geometry Wars and kept wondering, Why are all these new levels not giving me any bombs? And of course, I still don’t know which symbol means bombs and which means lives.

So yeah, point made, my L button is broken. And I’m sad. Because there are five DS games in queue for me right now (yup, those are all upcoming game loads), and I have to send off my DS to get repaired.

At least it’s in the warranty. And Nintendo’s usually really cool about this kind of stuff, so I don’t expect any problems to come up.

Maybe the gaming gods are looking out for me after all.