Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Update Rundown

News:

-College started Monday. When I took the math assessment test I realized that I hadn't even thought about Calculus for eight years. I'm taking two classes - Intro to Gaming & Simulation and Intro to Music Theory. The gaming course is part of a certificate they now offer. The music course is just because I like music. It's exciting to be in school again. And all paid for - assuming the GI Bill folks don't mess up my paperwork.

-Bought The Burning Crusade. Because apparently the fact that I've never gotten a WoW character to Level 40 wasn't enough to stop me from making several more alts. I really love the early game (even though I've done the quests a million times) but once I hit the mid-30s it just drags like crazy. My fault for soloing, but it would be nice to have some solo instances that would net decent XP/drops.

The Blood Elf starting areas are probably the most refined series of quests Blizzard has done to this point. Lots of quests, not as much backtracking. The two low-level towns (minus the capitol) are right smack in the middle of their zones. This means that even the furthest quest areas aren't more than half a zone away. You can stay in these starting areas all the way up to Level 20.

If anyone is interested, I'm a BE Priest on Fenris named Lucidity.

-The VA decided my compensation claim had merit. So I'll be supplementing my income with disability checks. This is very good news. It also means I'll be getting a new computer soon.

-In the new computer vein, the whole idea of Windows Vista has me pissed off. I hate feeling like there are no options and, let's be honest, there are no options. Not if you want to use DX10, which I do. It would be nice to go back in time and find some crucial point where the DX stuff could be open-sourced, leading to actual competitive OSes. If I get a Mac, I can pretty much only run WoW. If I get Linux, I can run a bunch of roguelikes. If I stay with XP, then no DX10. Feh. Fuck Microsoft [hands over money to Microsoft].

-For a brief period I tried out several Korean MMOs. Space Cowboy is one of the better ones. It plays a lot like the Crimson Skies game on Xbox. There is one MMO for every person in Korea. Also, most MMOs sell in-game items for actual cash and the world does not end. Amazing, I know.

-I also played the demo for Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons MMO. It's . . . okay. There are a lot of great ideas. Dungeons are instanced and have two degrees of scaling, party size and difficulty. Very convenient.

The animation looks broken, though. I had creatures consistently slide over the ground toward me.

I don't see it lasting much longer.

-Blizzard has announced they will make a new MMO. Then they will take over the world. Assuming they can also release a new Starcraft game.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ms. Knittiot and I started back up playing WoW in anticipation of buying BC once she's re-employed.

...and I run WoW quite nicely under Linux, just so ya know.

Anyway, once I get BC perhaps we'll have to start a semi-regular play time, eh?

Anonymous said...

I'm picking BC up tonight. I'll pop you a message when I've rolled up an alt o your server!