In a Return to Form

So yes, it's been a long time since I've last written here, but I feel like I should be doing so. Especially if I want to be a video games writer. I wonder if I would write more if it was my only job. I don't know. Maybe I'm so uninspired because I'm not getting paid. That may be part of it.
Anyway, I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 lately. Like almost an unhealthily large amount of it. I'm in class right now, but I'm guessing my Xfire profile is going to have about 20 hours this week. I do know for certain that I just hit 400 hours of it. That's a long time. I almost have 1,000 in World of Warcraft and that game is very very conducive to sitting down and playing for eternity. Team Fortress 2 is not. But somehow, I'm just gaining time slowly but surely.
Now, everyone who reads this blog knows already about the Spy vs Sniper update that just came out. Valve decided that their old system of unlocking weapons was fubar and so they decided to overhaul it. So they released a system that would randomly give you weapons as you accumulate play time. After playing for a week, I have to say this system is retarded. While I'm playing, it is nice not to have 4 snipers and 3 spies running around in every server in attempt to unlock achievements. However, I've played about 20 hours and have only unlocked one new weapon: The Ambassador. I have unlocked three other force of natures and another sandman. It's infuriating if I think about how much I'm being ripped off. But, if I just play the game like it's suppose to be played, I have fun, namely because there are only a slightly larger number of spies and snipers.


This is an informal piece of writing, right? Okay, good. Well, when I'm playing Team Fortress 2 my name that I have on Steam is “Awesome”. This sounds really self serving, right? But, I feel as though I deserve the title. I was playing yesterday and felt especially vindicated when I have 19 points, the next guy had 9 and my friend had 0. I just sat back and said, “wow I really am Awesome”. I have been getting really good as a sniper actually. Par example, I was sitting at about the midway point of the first Goldrush at the first point. I was looking through my scope and hear a Pyro near me. So, instead of trying to kill the Pyro who was bum rushing me, I looked slightly to the left and saw another Pyro running. I flicked by wrist and clicked. My life then ended. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that I did indeed kill him. I was very pleased with myself.


Recently, funnily enough, I have been recently been thinking of renewing my World of Warcraft account. Yes, I know I should not and I think I'll be able to stave of this craving until I finish finals, but I am really thinking of doing it. I've been thinking about how much fun it is to just run around Azeroth. I care about the world. I like to go Dustwallow Marsh or The Hinterlands. I like to explore the world and think about how the world use to be so bustling and important. I like finding the huts that are off the beaten path and looking around. I also like speculating about future expansions. I like to read about The Emerald Dream and think about how they may implement it. I want to get to level 80 and then go back and clear all the Burning Crusade dungeons. I want to get some bored people together and run some AQ. I find myself wishing I was really involved in Vanilla WoW. I played then, but I didn't really play. Back then, getting a group through Van Cleef was a huge deal. Most of the time we didn't have enough people or people had to leave or the group was retarded. Westfall was a beautiful place and was fun to run around in. Gaining a level was a big deal and you felt as though you had fun with the whole thing.


This is how I want to play WoW if I started again. I would play Akoris, sure. But I would do everything meticulously, trying to do all the quests in an area before moving on. I'm not sure I want to raid however. I definitely want to clear all the dungeons and heroic dungeons in Northrend. But I don't know about Raids. I may PUG a raid or two but I would make sure that I knew the fight very very well before going. I just don't want to have a commitment to a guild that I can't always fulfill. I think I'll be holy after I hit 80 though. Healing gets you into lots and lots of groups and I feel like I've a good healer. I hear that you can obtain an obscene amount of money in Northrend so I'll be able to get my epic flying mount. Then, I can go back to Outland and finish all the quests. Then, I can go back to Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and finish doing those quests. Then I can grind reputation for all the factions I never got to exalted. I feel like I want to play this like I played Grand Theft Auto and that's okay with me. I've just been being really nostalgic and longing for the days that I rode my elekk into Un'Goro Crater while watching Groundhog Day.


I also want to start a guild. I always got a kick out of my <We Hate WoW> fake guild spam and I feel like if I created the guild, people would join. It would be the people who I like too. The only people to join would be the ones with the subtle sense of humor because those would be the only ones who thought it was funny and worth responding to. I would invite anyone and everyone. I wouldn't care about any sort of guild disputes or anything. My motto would be “well fuck it”. I think we could be a pretty good griefing guild and become notorious. I would not mind being known for that. I think running a guild would be fun. Oh, and about the guild bank, I would allow everyone to take everything. I would of course tell everyone about that beforehand. It just seems unfair for someone to expect something they deposit to be there and it's not there. That's rude. But funny. Maybe I shouldn't tell everyone. Maybe I'll make a blogspot for the guild. Just talk about nothing. Should be fun.


I need to review a couple games actually. I played enough of Dawn of War 2 to review it, and I believe I have the review on this computer. I played through Braid and was very impressed by it. I could review that. I could also review Demigod. I've only played about 10 hours of it, but I feel as though I fully grasp the gist of the game. I also could review Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment. I have played only like 2 games, both as TEC, but again, I feel as though I get the game.
Writer Curtis Wright knows that renewing WoW right now would surely be the end of him

Playing Video Games

Playing video games is so much more fun when you're playing in a fort.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Left 4 Dead
3. Warcraft 3
   

OpenOffice.org

This isn't really video game related, but I downloaded Openoffice.org 3.0. It's amazing. Its basically a free, FREE, competitor to Microsoft Office. It doesn't disappoint. It's amazing. It looks like office so everything is where is should be. And it runs naively in Mac OSX. win.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Warcraft 3
   

Hi guyz

hi guyz!!
im hat dog!!!

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. CSS
   

BonK!

I started playing Team Fortress 2 again. It's a lot alotta fun. But, the question that has been pestering me lately is: why? Why is it fun? Humans by nature are pretty competitive creatures. We've been racing each other places since the dawn of time and wars simply come from competitions over natural resources. So, I doubt I am any different than those humans, despite my constant showering and my real lack of having to do physical labor. So I do enjoy competition. Blowing up someone with a sticky bomb you lobbed over a wall or cliff is extremly satisfying. As is throwing someone up in the air with a ocket launcher and then fataly shooting them again while they remain airborn. Is this fun because you beat another person? If I killed you once, then I am way better than you are. This statement is not valid, for in that game, random events can and do occur that resut in freak deaths, eg. rounding the corner into a crit rocket that someone shot at nothing. I think the real pleasure and the thing that keeps bringing my back is beating the other team. Working together with your teammates to defeat a common enemy is an incredably uniting experience, eg. World War 2 and us kicking the shit out of the Taliban. The great thing about that game is that somehow, situations can arise that leave both teams satisfied. I was playing dustbowl and we were holding the other team down for the entire match. And then, at the end of the match we all of a sudden all died for various reasons and the other team managed to capture the point and win. We know we were the better team, so we were not mad. And the other who pulled a miracle win was jubilant. Not many games are able to do that.

It's been a while since there has been a new class update. But, Robin Walker, blogger on behalf of the dev team, has been doing his job. Namely, blogging. His last blog was titled "Gentlemen" and his newest is entitled "Git along there, little doggies". These are some of the spy and engineer taunts, respectivly. This could point to a class pack release, maybe of both spy and engineer. This would be interesting because spies and engineers are basically enemies of each other. Well, not really. I think the engineer hates the spy, and the spy hates the pyro. The pyro in turn hates the soldier, who hates the demoman. The Demoman does not care for heavies or pyros. Heavies hate spies. Medics hate everyone, scouts are ignored by all and everyone hates snipers, who hates spies. That is why they should release a offense, defense, support pack. I would vote for soldier, demo, sniper. But that is probably not going to happen. I would be okay with engy/spy/offense. I enjoy both scout and soldier so I am okay with either. What if they released another pack for the already updated classes. Just add more weapons! that would be nuts.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress
   

New layout

I just wanted to point out I put Twitter back on here. I update to say things that I'm doing. Follow me if you want. I'll probably follow you back. I also put a follow feature that's from Blogger. I'm not sure what it does. I also put up a new poll. I think its clever.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   

My Mage (100th Post)

Well, I have a paladin, druid, hunter and a really low level mage. Now, I like my mage, but I always think that they are better than they really are. They really don't have enough health to stand up to anyone in a melee fight. They do have the power to kill people from afar but then they really have to rest after they kill anyone because of the large mana requirements of all their spells. I wish I could have all these guys up at 70, but I really don't have the time. I work all the time and I wish I didn't so much. I have worked constantly since two wednesdays ago. Wednesday through saturday, monday through friday, then i went to tahoe with my family until today. Now, this is a vacation but I like my house and I like my room and I miss it. I have all this stuff for a good reason, which is to use it. There was internet up at tahoe but it was slow and only available from the window sill of my room. There was the Hyatt across the street and I didn't want to go over there just to play World of Warcraft. I will also be working from wednesday to saturday it looks like. This bums me out a little bit. We are returning home a little early, which I am all for. I do want some off days though. I want to just sit around and play World of Warcraft. I also want to play through the new Team Fortress 2 achievements and test out all the new heavy weapons, which one of them seems to be a sandwich to regain health when you do not have a medic around. This is a good thing to put in there, allowing heavies to be a class that is good to play when you do not necessarily have a medic on your team.

I think that heavies are a class that really insights terror into the other team. When I as a soldier round to corner and see that ugly russian heavy visage, I turn and run right away. There is no way that I can take him on. I can take him if i get the element of surprise on him, because I can get at least 2 rockets at him before he can even start shooting me. The sandwich will not be in any way replacement to a medic. I am assuming that the sandwich is a single use thing that must be switched to use. This would stop the damage output from the heavy by a significant amount, first to stop firing, switch to it, use it, and then switch back to the minigun and start firing again. So this sandwich will probably just be a out of combat use thing that you use after a fight. Also, the new five maps will have to be played so that I can get use to them. I still think Goldrush is a thing of beauty along with Dustbowl and Badlands. I hope that the new payload map is as genius and fun as Goldrush. I do admit that I have not really played a lot of Fastlane and that other new one. Also, arena mode will be able to bring the strategy of Counter-Strike Source to Team Fortress. As it is now, there might be game plans, but they are only general strategies. There are no things that people do that are incredibly specific like in Source.

Speaking of Source, I have sorta taken it up on my free time. It's an incredible game. It's fast, intense and complex. My favorite map is definitely Dust2. It's evenly balanced, and small, allowing for quick transversals of the map. The thing that really makes me mad is when I die very quickly and don't even kill anyone, or even hurt anyone. That is one thing that Halo really hooked people on, is the ease of killing people randomly and not dying easily. You can throw a grenade and, if there are any people around at all, you can probably kill one. But, Halo also made it so that you could take a grenade and not die. It was the game for people who were new to shooters and it hooked them in for other ones. I do not particularly like Halo anymore, but I have many fond memories playing it with all my friends. It also hooked me in for games like Gears of War and Counter Strike.

This furthers my belief that what you like now is primarily a product of where you were. I first played Halo at Chris Clark's house and I was really bad at it. But I liked it and kept playing and got way better, eventually becoming the best of all my friends. I then learned about the video gaming center The Matrix. We went down there and use to pay $5 an hour to play the games on their high end computers. I use to play Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942. I eventually got Counter Strike on my home computer and played there and stopped going to The Matrix for I could play all their games. I then played Halo 2 a lot after it came out. I think the success of Halo 2 rested on the ease of play online and the fact that no other games for the Xbox came out at that time. There were games like Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source, but I didn't have the money to do computer games then. After Halo 2, came Gears of War, then Halo 3. I liked Gears a lot more than I liked Halo 3 I think because Gears was so different and a departure from the traditional run and gun gaming. But then, I started playing more and more computer games on my brother's computer, which reigned supreme over my eMachine piece of garbage. One day, I bought the orange box and played Team Fortress 2. That game was truly amazing and I remember the day I knew I would play it forever. I bought a BFC can of monster on a friday afternoon and played until 3am. That was last October. And I am still playing it. I did take a break from it for a couple months and right now am not playing it a lot, with WoW taking up most of my time. But I am not expecting to quit any time in the near future. There really isn't game on the horizon that has me very excited. I am very on board with World of Warcraft, its upcoming expansion, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source and Starcraft 2. Okay I lied, Starcraft 2 has me excited.

What does worry me is if World of Warcraft will get boring. The grind is pretty common in virtually all forms of WoW. Even with my level 70, I am still needing to grind rep in order to get those patterns. With Wrath coming out, all the factions that we grinded o so hard to get up will become useless because new factions will come out. Argent Dawn is not going to all of a sudden become useful again. If they do, they are rewarding old players and not encouraging new players to come in. That is the same reason that the Sha'tar will not be useful in Wrath. I think that World of Warcraft will end at level 100. By that time, levels 1-90 will be a breeze. It will fly and it will only demand about a quest or two a zone to level up. I also think that either 80-90 or 90-100 expansion will be the emerald dream. Maybe, in a bold move, Blizzard will make the Emerald Dream expansion a 80-100 expansion. Also, I think a very interesting idea would be that if you could start a character at level 60. All characters that went through the all 100 levels will be "true" level 100s but you can do it.That would allow people who want to play a chance to only have to level 40 times. That would devastate the old world and would make getting an instance group together for anything but 60+ instances impossible without prior planning. One thing that would also not surprise me is if Blizzard made every instance available in Heroic mode. If Razorfen Downs was a 80 instance, I might be encouraged to go do it. That is the only reason I am doing things like The Botanica and Ramparts. I might be able to experience Blackfathom Deeps and Maruadan and Dire Maul. Also, it would not surprise me if they tuned down Upper Blackrock Spire and Molten Core and other old raids and even Burning Crusade raids to 5-mans and made it a heroic. If Blizzard did those things, it might breathe old life back into a dead world.

My LAN party

I went to another AG LAN Saturday. Pretty good LAN. I played a remarkable amount of World of Warcraft for a LAN party. I played a lot of Team Fortress 2 as well. I punched out a lot more BonK members as a Heavy than I should have, namely 3. Sorry, I'm sorta blogged out for now. Read my post below to know why.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Team Fortress 2
   

So I don't forget

http://wow.curse.com/c/daily-quest-guide/
amazing for dailies. all of them. Is a blog suppose to be a blurb, meaning 2 or 3 sentences, or a magazine article?
Playlist:

1. WoW
2. Rock Band
3. Team Fortress 2
   

14 days 18 hours 47 minutes 20 seconds

14 days 18 hours 47 minutes 20 seconds. Has it really been that long? I don't regret a single minute of any of it. Many movies were watched and many podcasts listened to. It was enough time to watch Groundhog Day 200.06 times. And I watched it at least 20 times. It is truly an amazing movie. When ever I think back to my time of leveling, I will probably think of Un'Goro Crater whilst watching groundhog day. Even in my entire travels, I think that The Hinterlands is my favorite zone, followed closely by Westfall. I think Westfall only because it's got a sweet name and for nostalgia reasons. I think I watched almost every movie in my collection during my odyssey.

In case you missed it, that is my time it has taken to get me to 70 in World of Warcraft. I had doubts along the way. "Will I ever get an end-game character is any game?". My guy is level 52 out of 55 in Call of Duty 4. This was my first character to an End-game and now the game seems much bigger. When ever I'm in Azeroth, I'm sad. It's these zones that no one ever goes in, but which were once populated to the brim. Outland will soon be that way when everyone packs up and moves to Northrend. Azshara is a piece of shit zone, but it makes me sad I never see anyone there.

Well moving away from sadness and loss. Now that I have hit 70, there are a plethora of things to do. Right now, my main goal is to reach 375 fishing skill, so I can do dailies and make a fortune in conjunction with my cooking skill. I'm also doing some Battle Grounds, trying to grind for my Arena Season 2 gear, with is only honor points now. All of this before we go raiding. All of that is to help me make enough money to get my Epic Flying Mount. There is so much to do. It's almost overwhelming. I'm glad I have music I like enough to listen to for this whole time.

Playlist:

1. WoW
2. Rock Band
3. Team Fortress 2
   

Ha

So I started playing WoW again. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. I started a Horde Mage on the server Velen, not that anyone really cares or anything. I don't know why I even play. There is no real fun factor in it. There is that momentary feeling of achievement when you level up, but then the feeling of helplessness sets in and you remember that there are many many levels left to 70. Are we playing for a delayed reward of being a level 70? Since when did we play Video Games for reward later? If we want delayed rewards, we do well in school or read. And Video Games is neither of those. In Team Fortress 2, you kill someone and you feel good. You succesfully beat someone else. In WoW, you can beat someone but how much of that is you being good and not just how much time you put in it for gear and how lucky you got in the ambush of them? But, Team Fortress 2, my rocket, even though it has 45 hours of experience behind it, it does as much damage as Logan's who has 0 hours play time. WoW, you grinded that sword or boots and so forth. I suppose that is what makes MMOs different than FPSs, eh?

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. WoW
3. Sins of a Solar Empire

PS, Radon, if you want to write here, just ask.

Team Fortress MORE?!?!!?

ohmgee, I play a lot of Team Fortress 2. More and more, I've been experimenting with other classes and it has been pretty fun. I am trying out spy more and more and its been pretty fun for the most part. If I ever get more than 2 kills in thirty seconds, I literally laugh out loud becuase it is always some retarded people being retarded. One of the things that makes this game so amazing is that playing as a spy is almost completly different game from when you play as soldier. Same as when you play as Engineer. That is why this game has longevity and attraction. If you get bored with a certain class, you can switch to scout and play as some fast boston baseball fan.  

Also, I started playing Sins of a Solar Empire again. That game is sooo different if you play without just spamming units.


Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   
2. Sins of a Solar Empire
3. Grand Theft Auto 4

Presentation

I gave a sweet presentation today on Team Fortress 2. I didn't explain it a lot because I didn't want to lose the class's attention. Radon marked me down for it. But anyway, I keep playing TF2 it continues to be fun. I'm not sure if it will keep being as fun. Im pretty sure that solider is my good class.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Grand Theft Auto 4

Drinking for the Well of TF2

How did I even get title? I guess it just came to me. Anyway, to address the prompt. I started playing Team Fortress 2 again and again, wow. That's all I can really say. That game is just so good. I mean you can just play for hours and hours and hours. Every map has a much different feel to it that changing maps is almost like changing games. It's a true testament to the design of Valve. Every class plays so differently and yet so well. And every class works with every map.

Anyway, to the point of this whole blog. I read an article by Super Intern Norman Chan that I really agreed with. He puts forward that one thing that makes TF2 and UT3 and even Halo 3 so attractive is the lack of difference between the best players and the epic N00bZ. Norman Chan's rocket from the soldier does as much damage as someone who has started 5 minutes. The only advantage he has is that he knows where to shoot them. This is in contrast to a game like Call of Duty 4 or Battlefield 2, where the more experienced players are rewarded with better guns. This might encourage play to get those guns, but after you obtain them, where do you go? The game stops being fun. In Team Fortress's case, you have played for 100+ hours because you love the game. With the new achievements and unlockables coming out, I'm not sure that initial fun will stay.

First, it will the night of 1000 medics. Everyone's going to want to get their Uber-saw and we won't have anyone to heal or Uber. Second, we reward the talented medics by giving them better things to heal with? If anything, we should give the bad players an advantage, for they clearly need it more. This can be seen in true form in Super Smash Brother's Brawl. If someone is doing bad enough, they get a sympathy smash ball. This allows them to attempt to alleviate their losses. Third, after you get those achievements, will anyone want to continue to be medic?

My proposition is that you simply give the weapons to everyone. If people must work for them, it discourages new people from joining the game. If the weapons are initially unlockables, but then just given, there runs the risk of offending your loyal player base. The achievements are a fun enough meta-game to stand by them selves. No reward for achievements. When I was on my stint with my 360, I wanted to play to get the Achievement Points. I sat through Prey to get the 500+ points. Games stopped being fun, only something to be done to get those points. At one point, I had even asked myself, "Why would someone play any games on any other systems where there are no achievement points?". It wasn't a good thing, to say the least.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2

When a man loves a women

They defineatly do not play WoW. Thats probably why I am playing so much lately. I'm level 65 with my Paladin Akoris. I'm on the march to 70! I'm done with Zangermarsh. 
Finished! I already miss Terrokar Forest. I shouldn't though. Anyway, My dwarf hunter, my side
protoge is 15, just slowly creeping, I've reserved his play time for morning before school. A little, here, a little there, its's workin for me. I'm liking My boar that I tamed, with the charge and all. Witht he three people that read this, they are not hunters, so There are not any suggestions for any other good pets to tame. But, I'm looking towards some sort of DPS animal. I also set up a bank account. 200g bought me 11 neather weave bags and all teh slots in the bank. His name is Labanque and he is a half naked gnome warrior in Ironforge. 
I simply send all my want to be autcioned stuff to him, and he runs and does it. Saves time for having to go to major cities. Just saying. My goal is to be 70 and decently geared to go on the 
Tram (cross my fingers) to northrend. Dual screen really promotes Thottbot and Wowwiki searches.

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 multiplayer a bit too. I'm really liking the level ups, but it is not as big of a goal for as level 70 is. But, Just some time into it, makes the difference. I like the MP5 but nothing is as overpowered as the M4 Carbine.

Big TF2 news, however, huge new DL content coming out. Hopefully it comes out after I hit 70, because then I will be able to experience it with 
everyone else. But, the link the the new updates are here Here. I think that they might be taking cues from COD4, with the unlockable weapons. Also, i'm playing Track mania every so often and I'm sorta getting excited about Sins of the Solar Empire. Looks, interesting.

Playlist:

1. WoW
   
2. COD4
3. Team Fortres 2
4. TrackMania Nations

Guess what I have been playing

What the heck? My margins screw up, but then I erase everything and It goes back to normal? Intersting. Anyway, I have been playing Track Mania, World of Lolcraft and Team Frotress. They are the only good games that I see fit to play. Well, that and an occsional song or two on Guitar Hero 3. Speaking of which, on computer, Guitar hero is a crying shame. Well, maybe not, but it sucks. So, Latley, I have not been too interested in games. I have been more interested in like the computer programmig side. Like, for instance, got Linux to run on a virtual machine on this computer. There go my margins. what the heck? Well, wait, after saving as a draft and reopening, they work again. But I might just write in OpenOffice and publish from there. Continuing on my computer science rant, I enjoy just the part of discovering what I can do with the computer. I want to but my C++,Java programming to use, maybe build a good program that I can show off to companies that MAY want to hire me. But, I'm at a loss of what to build. No one said computer science required imagination.

Well, I installed UBUNTU, and don't know what to do with it. Probably build something.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
   
2. Team Fortress 2
3. Track Mania Nation

Short Post

I have found my two games. They are all I play.
Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
   
2. Team Fortress 2.

Crysis

Best things to ever do in it:

• Throw a Grenade into a house and then watch it explode.
  
• Ambush a truck with a rocket launcher and watch it flip
• Throw a guy through a house and then watch is crumble
• Punch a hole through a roof
• Drive into a tree and explode
• Blow up a gas station

In case you can't tell, I love Crysis. You could even say I <3 Crysis. Yet, I have only played Single Player. I am also playing TF2 alot as well. I played Rock band today and its pretty sweet as well.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   
2. Crysis
3. Rock Band

Digg

I joined Digg, and its really neat. I particularly enjoy that I can put what I "digg" onto the side bar of this blog. Also, I blog things that I find of interest. It cool.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   
2. Company of Heroes
3. Counter-Strike Source

Keyboard

I had my LAN yesterady/today. Ill talk about that later maybe. But I want this keyboard:
http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/cykeyv2.htm. 
When it comes out, I'm gonna buy it. Its 1337.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   
2. Supreme Commaner: Forged Alliance
3. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
4. Guitar Hero 3