This past month or so, I've been feeling the Warcraft Player vs Player love again. Way back when, we all chose to get ourselves onto a PVP server to give the virtual world that little extra frisson of risk. It's been a mixed bag -- bored and decently-geared children (this includes adult children) can "grief" or harass lower leveled players who are just trying to have a little fun. On the other hand, engaging in the defense of towns, or even just turning the tables on an ambusher when set upon out in the world, can be an incredibly fun experience.

About a year ago, Blizzard introduced "battlegrounds," which were specific areas designed for team vs team PVP content. There's a big 40 vs 40 map that -- to some extent -- emulates an actual Warcraft III map. It's interesting, but too impersonal for me (not to mention a multi-hour game). There's also Arathi Basin, a 15 vs 15 map that's sort of like Battlefield 2 -- control nodes to get resources to win. That's a lot more fun, as even 2-4 organized players can make a difference at a node, and the game goes quickly one way or another.

My heart, however, will always belong to Warsong Gulch. This map is straight up capture the flag, 10 on 10. It can be incredibly frustrating compared to Arathi Basin, since it's easier to get into a stalemate (or just get steamrolled). But, but... my DRUID can turn into a CHEETAH and RUN REALLY FAST.

Even if I inevitably die because our defense can't keep or retrieve our flag... there's still nothing like the rush of dodging obstacles and dashing across the field to home base.

This last few months, I've been slowly but surely moving up the PVP ranks. Just this week, I got the superior-grade druid PVP set, which has a speed boost as part of the bonuses, making me as speedy as most mounted characters in the game. Oh yeah, that's right -- that's my dust you're eating.

Yes, my name is Cynne, and I'm a flag ninja.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Valve has released a trailer for an upcoming game called Portal. Holy crap.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kevin's been talking up Titan Quest this last week, so I finally broke down and picked up. It's pretty fun!

Here's the short version: did you enjoy Diablo 2? Do you ever find yourself wanting to re-install it to relive its joys, and then when you do, discovering to your horror that graphics didn't age worth a damn? Do you want a version of Diablo 2 that has an extremely shiny 3D graphical upgrade, but is otherwise exactly the same game, ripped off with loving care?

THIS IS YOUR GAME.

It's totally Diablo 3, with Greek Gods instead of Christian ones. The animations are even eerily reminiscent. It's crack-tastic.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Salvage Vanguard Theater is a local indy theater group Skye turned me onto that puts on a variety of interesting shows. I've only been a few times, but they've always been enjoyable. (Flawed sometimes, but enjoyable and interesting.)

My fave show of all time, though, was The Intergalactic Nemesis. It's a live show done in the style of a radio serial, replete with sound effects by genuine foley artists. It's space opera cheeseball-tastic. I still need to see part 3; I suspect a CD purchase is in my future.

(Thanks, Ben, for the link!)

Posted by Eric Tilton at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ed Felten better expresses what was bugging me about this whole thing: Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » Taking Stevens Seriously. He also does an excellent analysis of how Stevens was probably trying to defend big telcos with his argument, a subtlety which I confess completely passed me by in my rush to try to comprehend at all.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Top 100 Facts About Jack Bauer.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Superman Returns: a lot of fun. I'm not a huge fan of the buffoonish Lex Luthor as set up by the original movies, but Spacey does a good job of taking what Hackman did and giving it depth. I prefer the comic book evolution of Superman into a kind of elder statesman of heroing, but the movie still filled me with a sense of wonder and teared me up on occasion.

Pirates 2: also a lot of fun, if more sloppily paced. Both movies push the three hour mark, but you notice it more with Pirates. Still, Cap'n Jack Sparrow is fun regardless, and Bill Nighy as Cthulhu Davy Jones is a suprise treat. Swashes are buckled in fine campy style.

A Scanner Darkly: Linklater's Waking Life techniques shine in this movie, which acts like a visually administered drug. This is easily the best PKD adaptation going. I expected to hate Keanu Reeves -- to find his presence jarring -- but his slack-jawed performance was perfectly appropriate. The real standout, though, is Robert Downey, Jr., who makes this movie worth seeing all by himself.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now, I'm no fan of Senator Ted Stevens. But Boing Boing's continued mocking of him for saying the Internet is made of tubes -- well, it just sums up the smarmy schoolyard bully attitude of Boing Boing that I find so frequently offputting.

You know what? It is made of tubes. Steven's description is a little loopy, but it's a pretty accurate description of the way a packet switched network works (splitting up the data into little pieces that might be split through a variety of pipes on its away across the network) versus the way a dedicated circuit network works (loading it on a truck). So it comes across as pretty snotty for Boing Boing -- which is more than happy to re-spout such meaningless aphorisms as "the network routes around damage" -- to resort to argument by authority against something that in the final analysis, isn't wrong.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I picked up Brain Age for the DS, since hey, everybody's doing it. It's interesting. I have no idea if it's doing any good or not, but my brain is back to its "normal age" after just a few sessions, so I guess it's at least training me to take its tests.

It also includes Sudoku, the logic puzzle number grid game. I'm surprised by how much I enjoy this. It's eerily like debugging -- it's all about eliminating possibilities until you have proof about how the system is supposed to work.

Posted by Eric Tilton at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)