The internet is a wonderful thing. It gives us easy access to knowledge, entertainment, and it enables communication between people like never before. It all hinges on the human factor, however – the user must make the effort to utilize these parts of the internet. Like me, for example.
I’m lazy.
There are a lot of people that, from time to time, I find myself wishing I had kept in contact with. And from time to time, I get to wondering how things have turned out for them. But I never really make any effort to do anything about that curiosity, and just as quickly as it arose, it disappears. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I don’t like the people, or didn’t enjoy the time (however brief it may have been) that I spent with them. It’s just that… I’m lazy.
And I recognize that this is probably a serious character flaw, just like the fact that I am a major pack rat. And, as sad as this analogy may be, there will come a time when I will go hunting for people just like I would hunt for something that I had stashed away, and not quite forgotten about, knowing that someday I might want to do something with it… Which I did just recently.
And then you learn all over again what a wonderful thing the internet can be. It just might take you a little bit to find what you’re looking for.
On a completely unrelated side note, I finally got Ubuntu working on the laptop after fighting with it for a few days. Turns out there was an issue with the dual video cards, but now that it’s installed, it works just fine. More on that later, perhaps.
I’ve always defaulted to Windows as my operating system, mostly for the facts that it’s what I grew up with, and because Mac computers tend to die within 5 minutes after me touching them. Something having to do with not being able to handle the multi-tasking load that I would put it under. Granted, those were from 8 years ago when I was in high school, G4’s at the most I think, and I got banned from the computer labs during lunch hour because I crashed one to the point where they had to reformat it. YESH! I’m sure there are still a few people that remember that particular incident. In any case, I’m pretty much as anti-Mac as they come. Don’t have an iPod or anything, and I think Apple’s greatest idea has been to switch to Intel processors and allowing Windows to be installed on their machines in place of OS/X or whatever operating system is standard for them these days.
Linux, on the other hand, was something that I was always aware of, once it became a little more mainstream… probably around the time I LEFT high school… but never had the mind to try simply because of how difficult I had heard it was, and that, as a gamer, there are very few, if any, games that have been developed for Linux based operating systems. But lately, thanks to the fortunate timing of a coversation with my boss, who is an avid computer geek, and an article on “The Register“, an online IT news site that I frequent (mostly for tales of the BOFH), I’ve been inspired to give it a whack. Right now I feel like I’m diving off the deep end, with no clue how to swim, but in reality I’m probably only just dipping my toes into the shallow end to test the water.
I certainly have the spare computers to work with (read: destroy), and so I’ve downloaded Ubuntu. So far I’ve tried running it on a virtual machine using MS “Virtual PC 2007” (Failure – no mouse support), copying the CD to a thumb drive and getting it to boot off of that (Failure again), and then finally managing to find a blank CD-R that had enough space (First one I found was a 650 Mb dinosaur – Ubuntu ISO is 695 Mb), burning it, and booting off of that (Success!).  My first real guinea pig, so to speak, was actually a laptop that I was repairing for a friend that needed the hard drive tested. With no other operating system available, I threw the CD in, installed it, then followed up with WINE, and with no issues, a celebratory pizza for supper.
Sooo, now I’m planning on taking it a step further by prepping MY laptop for it’s much needed wipe, and then I’ll install Ubuntu, possibly dual booting with Windows XP eventually, since I’ll be needing it for my next trip to the great sandbox.
I don’t know what I did to garner so many comments (AoC Beta?), but your comments will never see the light of day…Â Though I doubt that you’ll get the message, since most of you are probably bots anyway.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. — William ShakespeareÂ
In this day and age, people who play online games are, more likely than not, either playing more than one game, or more than one character, and as a result, they can have more than one “name” at any given time.
Now, for those of us who have blogs, like this one, what does one do when your name changes? By which name do you refer yourself? In some cases, like BRK, it’s a non-issue. I would bet that BRK will ALWAYS be BRK, unless, of course, he decides to stop playing WoW, in which case I would bet that his blog would fizzle. Pure speculation, of course, but hey, you never know.
But what of cases like that of my wife and myself? For the longest time, I went by “Sirrius”, a name which spanned at least 4 or 5 games, and which I still use in multiplayer FPS games simply due to the fact that it’s the name that I am, if at all, most recognized by in that community. With the advent of WoW though, one of my alt names from DAoC became my main – “Taunus” – and ever since, with one exception, I have changed my name every time I changed characters. In my wife’s case, her “main” has rarely stayed the same for long, which is why I don’t address her by name on this blog. It feels weird though, and while I could probably address her by her real name – Gina – I’m not sure how well that fits, since she will never go by that name in a game.
This could also almost apply to real life as well – at work, I am addressed in many different ways – Sergeant Taylor, Taylor, Forrest, FT, hey you…. And the same goes for my co-workers, just to name a few –  JB, Moron, Nappy, Duran Duran, Wes, Cakes….
Granted, for this blog I will probably never be anything other than Arvelen, but the question still stands.
The AoC Gamespot PvP beta started yesterday, and as of this afternoon, apparently the NDA has come down…. Which means I can spout off all I want about the game until it goes back up tomorrow. Don’t ask me how that works.
During the tech test, I only managed to make it as far as the first city, and level 5 or 6. In the PvP beta, which my wife managed to get us a key for, you can do the beginning area all the way up to the point where you would enter the area before the first city, and then you get teleported elsewhere, boosted to level 20, and given a stack of gear. You’re stuck there, with nothing to do but look around, and of course, join PvP games.
For initial observations with PvE, I’m going to have to say that I like it. Even though I start out without a bow, and was unable to get one (You start out with a broken oar), combat seems to flow easily enough, and it’s not very complex. Once I hit level 5, I was able to dump skill points into categories – Bandage, Climb, and Hide – and got my first class specific abilities. It might be different classes, but I really don’t know, as I haven’t played anything else.
PvP, however, is a completely different story. So far, it’s battlegrounds only, and there are two types – CTF, with three maps; Team Deathmatch, with one map. The fortunate thing is that everyone is stuck with equivalent gear, so it’s a level playing field gear-wise, unlike WoW. Skill and class balance are really the only factor here….  And class balance is borked. I haven’t really had much time to play, since we’re essentially sharing the account, but so far, there are a few classes that stand out as being overpowered. Rangers are apparently hugely overpowered, as evidenced by this video from Keen and Graev:
Also, it doesn’t seem to flow quite as smoothly as PvE combat did, or even the way PvP did in WoW. The one CTF map that I played was laid out more like a map out of Unreal Tournament or Quake than anything that I’ve previously experienced in RPG’s. But, as I’ve said, I haven’t been able to play much, so we’ll see.
I had the opportunity to participate in the Age of Conan tech test yesterday immediately following the house rewiring (Yay! No more wireless!). Unfortunately, the NDA is still up, so I can’t say much, but I think it’s safe to say this: It looks promising, and the play time that was allotted went by entirely too fast. Rumor has it that the NDA will be coming down soon, so I’ll spout off more when that happens.
The dog door is finally installed, but only after destroying the only blade I had for my reciprocating saw. The dogs (who are enjoying the new back yard IMMENSLEY), haven’t quite gotten it figured out yet, but they should in a few days.
Next up, the project that I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and… You get the idea. Running a Coax line and CAT-5 through the house. Measurements come first, so we head up into the attic and I spelunk my way through to the other side with a string line. I think the hardest part of this will be getting it up into the attic, but we’ll see.
With that finished, we head down so I can shower, since I stink (it’s hot up there!), and we start making a list of the stuff we need. I mention that I need a new saw blade, and my wife remarks “Ok, well, I want to get a new shower blade….”
… What?
Turns out she wants a new shower rod for the master bath, but “shower blade” is just one in the many interesting phrases that she comes up with, due in part to her illness… Phrases like “comploded” and “rocket surgeon”. But at least we get a good laugh out of it, and in retrospect, there are times where I’m not much better.
We finally finished moving out of the old house yesterday, with 2 trailer loads of trash. I’m so glad it’s over, since it really kind of marks a new beginning for us. Yeah, we’ve got a lot of boxes left to unpack, but the difference this time is that they’re out in the garage, and not inside cluttering life up and dragging us down. Those two trailer loads was a big weight lifted from our shoulders as well. We’ll just have to commit to some sort of schedule of unpacking, but we’re probably going to slow down a bit and recover. I know of at least one box that I need to get in to ASAP for work related material though, and only a small idea of where it is.
I also took the time to check one of my less-frequently used email accounts, and discovered that I had been accepted into the Age of Conan beta! It’s downloading right now, and should be done shortly before I get home from work, though I don’t think I’ll be able to play until the next stress test.
We’re back on track, it seems and everything is pretty much out of the old house. The wife got released from the hospital Saturday afternoon, and I started hacking away at the piles again almost immediately. Now we’re just down to a few odds and ends here, some clothing, and the trash, which will be thrilling to take care of.
Next off, fix the toilet, run coax and CAT5, unpack boxes, finish setting up surround sound, unpack more boxes…Â Did I mention we have boxes to unpack?
