Multimedia Technology

Author: Slaynn Posted under:

Sometimes it is necessary to take a break in your regularly scheduled program to highlight something that needs it. While not gaming related, it is internet nerd related which is acceptable in my book. I am submitting this blog as part of an assignment for school related to a class on multimedia technology. As someone that has been around this stuff since I was a wee lad I have come to appreciate the enriching experience that can be had combining several media technologies for one application.

I am a couple classes from a degree and I tell ya, after reading on a subject forever it helps tons to watch a video or listen to a sound clip related to the writing material. It definitely aids in making connections that you just can't on your own.

PS- Hello Ms. Tambini!! :P
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I'm Alive!

Author: Slaynn Posted under: , ,
Yes, contrary to the attempts of armies of ninja zombies, I am still alive. Out of the list of possible zombies I would have to say that ninja zombies are the worst. They own your face with ninja moves then chomp on it like a little elementary school kid eating cafeteria tater tots. OM NOM NOM!


So in between defending myself from the undead trained in martial arts I have been playing several MMO's including Aion, Champions Online and Allods Online. Stealing the term coined by the folks over at Multiplaying I am going to give those games a 'Half Assed Review'. Just to put it out there, I never go into a game planning on not liking it. I am not going to go to the store and drop $35 - $50 on a product with the expectation of giving it to the dog as a chew toy. Without further delay here we go...



Aion:

To be truthful, I bought this game on an impulse. I was bored and was looking for an MMO that could hold my attention and inject a little gamer joy into the normal day of combating the walking dead. After surfing over to Direct2Drive and purchasing a digital copy of the game, downloading, installing, updating and logging on I was really surprised at how beautiful this game is. Going off of what I have learned in the past I wanted to have a character that was pretty decent at PvP. After years of playing a tank in MMO's I decided to go with one of the lesser played DPS classes. It only took minutes of research to find out that Ranger was the class for me.


Character creation was pretty good. While all characters are human, there are several hair styles and face choices. The one thing that seperated characters from one another were the sizes. The ability to have your character size vary from a leprachaun to a behemoth of a man (or woman) was unique to most MMO's out today.


I leveled my Ranger to around 19 and discovered that the game was OK. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad. If I had to put my finger on it I would say that the game was very vanilla. You get your quests, you do your quests and that's it. Killing mobs for quests while occasionally flying around. Unfortunately Aion didn't keep my attention long enough to get into the Abyss and get my PvP on. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but there wasn't enough depth for it to grab me and pull me in. Character development was very mundane. My Ranger was the same as all the other Rangers running around.


Depending on what is going on at work tomorrow I will continue my slew of half assed reviews.


Same bat time, same bat channel.... maybe.
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Does motivation come in pill form?

Author: Slaynn Posted under: ,

Once again I epic fail when it comes to keeping this updated. I have, for the last time, quit Warhammer Online and I don't think I will be going back. I wanted to like that game for a long time and I've given it three or four chances but it still came up short for me. I was only holding my attention for a few weeks at a time. I think the major reason was population. The public quests and RvR on multiple tiers between three pairings required an immense population at all times of the day and night to support all of these things simultaneously. Oh well, I'm still a Mythic fan because of Dark Age of Camelot but they fell short with Warhammer. The compartmentalized feel to the world and the lack of 'fluff' didn't help at all. Class specific gear is something else that I didn't like. Come to think of it, the more I write about it the more I can come up with issues that turned me off of the game.


I am back into World of Warcraft and I am enjoying myself there for the time being. There are quite a few MMO's that are coming out soon and my next post (whenever the hell that will happen) will be going over the pros and cons that I have found so far for Aion, Fallen Earth, Champions and whatever else is coming out in the next couple of months.
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WAR City Sieges and Land of the Dead

Author: Slaynn Posted under:


Last night when I logged onto my Warhammer Online shaman I discovered that we were raiding the city of Altdorf. Just to get anyone up to speed that isn't, raiding the enemy's capital city is the pinnacle of WAR's endgame. All the best gear comes from killing the other factions king/overlord/head honcho and the focus of the entire RvR portion of the game is to bring the fight to the bad, or good, guys doorstep. So, I immediately ran to Altdorf on my level 31 (out of 40) healer and figured I would see if I can help out. Having never done anything like that in WAR before I was completely n00bcake. After finding the rest of the warband I stuck with them and healed my little goblin butt off. I'm not entirely sure how the whole thing works but we were absolutely slaughtering the Order in there. The public quest tracker said that we were killing them something along the lines of 4 to 1. We were completing our missions before they were but the little zone control meter climbed to just below us completing phase 1 and stopped. I did get a really nice purple healing ring out of it all so overall I think it was a fun experience. I just wish that kind of stuff would kick off during the times when I can play so I can stop catching the tail end of it all.






After the two hour timer for the city raid expired I figured I could log onto my warrior priest on Ironfist and take a look at the new Land of the Dead expansion. For the little bit that I was able to play I think I liked it. It adds a bit of a gear chase to the game. I think that is exactly what WAR was lacking. That carrot on a stick that gives you a sense of personal accomplishment. There are ways that you can get an accomplishment for your faction but that is very impersonal. The individual accomplishment is what gives me, as a gamer, the motivation to keep going.




I look forward to doing more of it on both my shaman and warrior priest.


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Shameless Plug

Author: Slaynn Posted under:
Just wanted to give a blatant, unadulterated, shameless plug for my brother and good friend Puppy Master. He just started blogging today and I am showin him some love. Check him out at Tales From the Geek.





From one geek to another, welcome to the blogosphere mang. I look forward to peering into the depths of the seedy geek underworld.
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Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent

Author: Slaynn Posted under: , ,

My son, Brendon, and I started playing a game called Neo Steam. It's another free to play Asian game that has been out for a while. They recently westernized it and put up a North American server slapped a little name addition on it and called it good. I created a little Pom mage just for shits and giggles. In a nutshell, just about literally, he is a micro sized dude that sports a giant head.



Brendon created a werewolf machinist character. It's essentially the trade skill class with some rifle skills thrown in to level with. So far it's a neat little game. I really don't know the intricacies but I think it will be worth it to dabble in the game every now and then. I enjoy the graphic style and game play. It reminds me of a Final Fantasy-esque set up without all the turn based ka-ka combat.



Other than Neo Steam I have been playing both Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft again. I got my shaman to 80 and did a few 10 and 25 man raids with him. I really do enjoy raiding on WoW. Everything else I think is old hat and I don't care to do it. Things like doing dailies and crap are just meh. I will consider leveling my warrior from 76 to 80 just so I can try raiding with him. There are a ton of classes that use plate armor and two handed weapons so it will be slower to gear him up. Regardless, raiding as a DPS warrior back in the day it was a blast.



As far as WAR goes I have been leveling my gobbo shaman on Volkmar named Grailz. The whole greenskin motif is badass. Makes me want to read up on the whole lore and all that and I never care too much for that sort of stuff. But my little healbot is rockin. I get compliments at level 31 to the tune of me healing better than capped healers at level 40. After all, online gaming is about being awesomesauce and showing how much everyone else sucks, AMIRITE!?







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Windows Live Writer

Author: Slaynn Posted under: ,

I just downloaded Windows Live Writer. So far it’s a nifty little program that lets me write and publish from my desktop without having to use Blogger.com. If this post looks good I think I will start using this on a regular basis. It might even motivate me to write more. Hah, SUUUUUUURE.



I haven’t been playing many games lately. I did hop on to Runes of Magic for the first time in a month or so. I have a mid twenties priest/knight that I enjoy playing. Frogster is doing a bang up job with updates and constantly adding new content. It’s free to play with a pay per month quality to it. If you decide to roll on the PvP server look me up. Name is Slaynn.

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