The Love of My Life

Often we forget about the most basic comforts in life. I was reminded of that yesterday, when I inadvertantly posted a few thoughtless comments about the only person in my life that truly matters. My best friend, my wife.

I am not a real gushy, smoochy person, but I do know when I have made a mistake and I want to proclaim to the whole internet and the world, and even to some extent, future society (hey this message may survive a thousand years in a vault somewhere) that if you can find one person in your life you can call your best friend, and then marry that person, you have done well.

As much as I love playing computer games, I enjoy being with my wife more. Long walks along the White Pine Trail is a much better treat, than lanquishing in front of the computer finding gold and thrashing dragons.

So take a moment to reflect on what really matters in life. And make sure you don’t lose grip on the important things.

Try Runes of Magic

I am downloading the free to play game: Runes of Magic.  It looks like it has potential. Only time will tell.  I will give my review in a couple of weeks.

http://www.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html

Warhammer Review

I just left the ten day free trial of Warhammer, spending my days fighting on the Vortex Server. I must say that the game is very fun to play and reminds me graphically of Lord of the Rings; plays like World of Warcraft; and has the PvP of Dark Ages of Camelot.

I played a half dozen “good guys” trying only once to play a goblin on the forces of Chaos — I could not get over their slang and quickly went back to the Order.

Overall, I enjoyed the game enough to buy it. You can get it from several outlets for 28 bucks — so shop around. It is 15 bucks a month after the first month for free: though they still need a credit card up front (I have been told you can use a bogus number or simply quit after using a real card).

As I said, I bought the game and moved my characters over to an established server called Iron Rock — Mostly to follow a friend I met online, known as MagicKira. We have not met up, but it’s fun to talk to her as I play.

There are some weak points in the game, both derived from the game and also from the player base.

From the game side, the PvP or RvR (Realm vs. Realm) can become quickly lopsided if the player mix isn’t right. I also found that my healer doesn’t heal real well and the numbers of healers in the game seem to attest to that (see below).

From the player side, I think most players have no real idea what PvP means. The general idea so far is a gang of thugs fighting a gang of thugs, mentality. There is no organization, no tactic, no strategy — worse it is every man or woman for himself. Countless times my healer was ganked while my own team simply watched — then bitched because they were not getting healed. Warriors have no concept in the game about fighting near healers, protecting the healer, or even caring about the healer. On the other side, the healers to care more about healing themselves and doing damage, than helping their teammates. Overall, I am not impressed with the player mentality in the game.

I also find, at least on Iron Rock, the overall age level to be rather low — of course you cannot tell a person’s age directly, but from their crude and coarse banter I would imagine most are in their teens — full of mouth with very little real world experience.

The crafting in the game seems rather dull and very limited — straight out of World of Warcraft with less originality and fewer options.

The game has mounts and some look interesting. But the game has no guild halls or houses, at least as far as I can tell.

Recently the game had a serious problem with players leaving the game, and they closed down like 30 servers. I saw the same thing happen in Age of Conan — I think players are very jaded today, hopping from one title to the next because they get bored quickly.

Overall, though, I think its a fun diversion for the Spring — will I be playing it in the summer. I doubt it. But its fun for the moment.

Baby Steps

I used to think that life events happened it giant titanic leaps — the sort of life changing moments like moving to Japan or Washington DC (which I did) or getting married (which I did as well). But as I get older I see that life is not these giant leaps into the unknown that forever change the course of your life, but tiny baby steps that inch you down a path in life. Its not these moments in life, when you wake up and boldly walk into your office and proclaim, “I quit, you bastards!” and storm off. Rather its these tiny steps of each day getting up and adding to your portfolio of writing: talking on twitter, adding weblobs, commenting on other’s opinions, doing podcasts, that make life’s major changes.

Case in point with my writing. I didn’t sit down one day and hack out my 500 page novel, but rather pushed the story along over a course of months. I am still prodding and pushing the story, page by page (eh! often word by word) down the path.

The journey of my writing must be just as important as the novel itself. I often get muddled down with thoughts of just getting it done and moving on — wondering how much is too much. I often stare at the monitor thinking that my writing is going no where.

What I must do however, is look at the long road that I have traveled and understand that it still winds out in front of me into oblivion. I will never give up my story, and someday I will look back on the long traveled road and realize that it wasn’t a dash at breakneck speeds that got me there, but the slow baby steps of the day to day push.

Troy

Five days of Pure Bliss

I must say I know why everyone looks forward to retirement. I spent five days just grousing around the house and found it so appealing that I am looking for my next big break.  Normally, my wife has me running off to some hotel up north when I have large amounts of time off, but this time I simply stayed home.

I am the kind of person that luxuriates in the most simple pleasures.  Sleeping in, eating well, sitting back with a good book — even the more unsavory little things like staying in my PJs all day or not showering until five o’clock in the evening.

I spent those five days organizng my study, and recommitting myself to working harder on my novel.  I did get a bit of good news from the one agent that has read my book.  Although they turned me down on representing me, they did say my story has a ton of potential and that of all the manuscripts that they read, mine stood out.  I will take that as a positive comment on the story.

I also got my taxes done and cleaned up some other untidy bills that have been nagging me.

Oh, I also played a bit more of EQ than I should.  I got my main to 72nd level ( a magician) and my second box to 71 ( a shaman).  There is a long story with EQ which one day I will get into, but suffice to say that I have always wanted to see a maximum level magician in the game — I am not sure if I will make it during this stay in Norrath, but it has been fun.

I also got to watch several movies — and even though i don’t go to the theatre, I am a sap when it comes to love stories and good adventures.  I watched Serendipity with John Cusack (very good) and Beautiful Mind with Russel Crowe (another great movie).

Returned to work on Monday to the dreary life of the working man — but I look forward to my next big blast of time off.  In June my wife and I head to Traverse City for a week, but in mid July I got 5 days off again….Oh god I look forward to the searing heat of summer.

Troy