Rogue

The usual this week; BF2, GW, ML prep, and other concerns.

Follow up:

I played a couple of games of BF2 on my own during the week (none of the usual suspects joining in) and my scores were a lot higher but it wasnt as fun. None of the squads I was joining were using mic's so it was a lot more of a solitary experience then I'm used to. Despite playing on Internode #1 (the 64 player Wake Island 2007 Server) it just wasn't as cool.

Because I was essentially free roaming I was able to range far and wide and slaughter all in my path, but when you play with other mic'd up players you really get a sense of achievement when you back someone up. Whether it's just ressurecting them to secure a point or holding a room together, its just plain better.

On the upside I did increase in rank however. I was only 9 points away from the promotion one night during the week, so I put in a couple of minutes before going to bed one night and scored 10 quick points. 5001 global points now

I bought a second hand copy of Guild Wars during the week and I was right that it's not really worth the $90 rrp. Seriously when it comes to character development, just like any MMO, it's another boring level grind. I'm yet to see an MMO where people care more about their adventures together than "omgz rare max dmg purple sword of amsomeo LOLz, whisper me!". I've played EQ previously (EverCrack) and it was no different there, I've tried WoW on private servers and I just really didnt like the mechanics. I actually prefer the GW method of instances for everything it's fantastic.

What it means is I don't have to deal with the great unwashed until I go into towns. I choose who I want to take with me on a quest and that's all who come allong appart from the NPCs. No more kill stealing or ganking, it's great. One big downside as I noted above though is that there isn't an auction house, and the game desperately needs one. Although there is a trade channel only about half the people use it (mostly because you can switch it off to get rid of the spam).

On my first night and literally within a matter of moments I had been asked to join a Guild. They had a cape and a guildhall and the guy I was chatting to actually spoke in plain english sentances so they got the tick and I signed on the dotted line. I've run in to a few people now who have asked to add me to their friends list purely because I actually speak normally and often. It would appear it's a pain in GW to get away from the l33t people.

After playing it for maybe 20minutes a night during the week I've reached level 9 and have also gone into the second section of the game. It's amazing the differences in player personalities. In the starting areas everyone is very friendly and helpful and often just chill out and chew the fat. But as soon as I went 'over the wall' it all changed and not for the better.

I'm going to keep my eye out for a new Guild, since the one I first joined I havnt seen any members from the first night (they are on UK time so play opposite to when I do). I might try and get on with AvA, the big Australian Online Clan. They may even have some room in their BF2 teams for me which would be nice, I've been out of competitive play (LAN or otherwise) for a few years now but BF2 has made me hungry for it again.

We're begining the ramp up for MonsterLAN XIII in December as well. CherryPopper just finished the global user survey and I'm editing the tournament games survey now, hopefully be able to put it out maybe tonight. I'm going to give it around a week to get some responses in and then pick the games. Once the games are decided the pressure is on again to build up some stable server configs with easy round/server triggering and balanced and fair settings.

There were a few really great comments that came out of the general survey where people said they appreciated what I do which really meant a lot, and hopefully I can keep up a good level of pseudo-structured comp play to keep them happy. I also plan on getting Boxy to lend a hand since he has graciously offered to do so, so he should be able to handle 1 or 2 of the tournies to lighten my load a bit.

And I'm still looking at my options regarding getting mechanised. We have the funding.

Workwise I've starting looking at some clean ways of getting quality context sensitive help onto user screens and also a simple and functional client-side-based system navigation structure. Server side is so much easier but we do have a goal to maintain distributed load when data integrity is not critical (aka, a nav structure). I have many ideas yet not the means to express them.

I need more sleep though, 6 hours a night isn't enough. Magazines I've been reading say eight is needed for total rejuvenation. Ah well, that's what I get for so easily succumbing to my game cravings. No sleep for the geek.