Found this at a local Japanese store. I’m shocked they didn’t call this the Official Face Roller, but then the folks who named this probably had no idea. Yaay for engrish.
Next time someone in raid claims to be facerolling, I will know what (wtf?!) they are doing.
Ready Player One is the latest geeky book phenomenon by Ernest Cline and also the January book for the Geek Girl Book Club.
Set in a dystopian future; economic and environmental catastrophes have resulted in a huge worldwide resource shortage. Anyone who can afford it escapes his or her poverty stricken existence by plugging into the virtual OASIS, an immersive Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
Upon his death, the creator of OASIS, wills his entire fortune, billions of dollars and controlling shares in the OASIS Company, to the first person that can find the three virtual keys he has hidden inside the game. Massive treasure hunting fever sweeps the world.
Five years later, not a single key has been found. Until Wade, a young man who, like most of his peers, grew up plugged into the OASIS simulation. He discovers, through luck, tenacity and a bit of brains, the first of the three keys. Pandemonium ensues and we get to come along for the ride.
January always inspires thoughts of new years resolutions. Whilst contemplating this year’s set of goals, it became apparent to me that my lists are very much the same from year to year, write more, get out more, dance more, play more, same old same old (boring!)
So I scrapped that idea, and thought, well what about a ‘bigger picture’ take on the whole thing. Which of course bogged me down into the realm of world peace, cure cancer, fight depression, and end world hunger. Scrapped that list also. These vital problems are too large and important for a mere January resolution list.
On the verge of abandoning the whole idea, it occurred to me that maybe I should think of this as a wish list. Pick ten really geeky and totally frivolous things I would love to see happen, however unlikely.
And so, with this post, I release my top ten picks into the geekaverse. May they show up on someone’s to do list, preferably someone who can make shit happen.
I didn’t know I had any firsts left in World of Warcraft. Then again I was pretty sure I was done raiding, so what the hell do I know. =P
Yup, for the first time ever, my warlock has her four piece tier set bonus. What makes this even more amazing is that it’s the current highest gear level. That’s right, tier 13.
The highest gear was only ever available to high end raiding groups, this means militaristic 25-40 people, methodically dying week after week, until the gear and learning curve were sufficient. Then it’s just grinding through the raid over and over. Sounds fun right?
Most like torture really. Loot hasn’t been much of a motivator to participate in such masochism, since the days of EverQuest anyway. And so I have forgone set piece completion in favor of sanity.
But with the latest patch, Looking for Raid (LFR) was added to the game. This is a cross server collection of 25 people, very much like the looking for group system. What makes this really work is that they dumbed down the encounters to such an extent that hardly any coordination is required and completing the event takes very little time.
So lots of success to be had in LFR, high end gear is finally available to all a wider range of players. But like all LF experiences you still have to deal with 24 other random people, replete with ninja looting, complaining, afk-ing, quitting, failing, and so forth.
Thankfully my warlock now has her 4 piece tier bonus, so I never have to LFR with her again. Sadly my druid isn’t quite as lucky.
I love the sentiment behind this. Dont be a dick.
(via TheMarySue)
SWTOR was released yesterday. The official ‘buy it in the store’ version; the beta has been floating around a while now. Never had the time to play it in beta, even though I got a few invites.
A new MMORG always has me hesitating. It’s a big commitment and most of them are just so disappointing, its better to set expectations low to avoid total heartbreak. But the husband wanted to try it, so I went out and picked up two copies yesterday.
Ugh, I’ve come down with my seasonal cold and its sucky. Spent most of yesterday in bed, not so much sleeping as thrashing about trying desperately to sleep. Eventually I took some Tylenol, which did the trick.
I was trying to rest up for the raid I had that evening. Now that I’m back at my WoW job, there are expectations that I show. So I tried. I really tried.
This is what I learned. World of Warcraft is really hard when sick. Couldn’t concentrate on dpsing with spots in my vision and an inability to remain upright. Thankfully a friend took over for me and I returned to bed. But hey I tried.
Feeling somewhat better today (yaaay sleeping for 12 hours), but there is another raid tonight. Will just have to see how I manage that one. Oooh and I’m healing at tonights raid. Should be interesting.
It’s only the beginning of the holiday season and I am already so burned out. This might have to do with the thirty some people that crammed into my very small place for thanksgiving. After that whole ordeal, I find myself in a motivational slump.
Which is terrible timing (learned my lesson, don’t invite 30 over and feed them!) It’s a busy time. Family obligations, various fairs to attend, and massive amounts of game releases make for very little extra downtime.
And then a new WoW patch was released. And Word of Warcraft is so easy; my husband plays, my characters are already established, our guild merged with another small one so more people are playing. It requires so little thinking and motivation from me, I just piggy back onto the husband’s schedule.
Turns out that I now find myself raiding three nights a week and gearing up two characters. (WoW took advantage of me in my moment of weakness!) Bit more then I was aiming for, but then I should know better. WoW has always sucked me in whole; I’m not so good at applying the whole ‘in moderation’ virtue to WoW.
But I have to say that the 4.3 Patch has made the game much more fun. By that I mean progression is possible, without agonizing grinding or learning curves.
Plus the new tier 13 Warlock set bonuses are awesome! This is probably the first time ever that I have actively wanted to complete a set bonus. Doomguard more often? Yes please!! No more Shard fussing? Finally!
~sigh~ World of Warcraft is like a pit of Quick Sand. Seems like I’m stuck here for a while and the more I struggle the worse it will be. Portal 2 will just have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.
This is the prequel to the very popular Deus Ex from ages ago. Set twenty-five years before, it explores the controversial introduction of biomechanical augmentations for humans.
Having never played the original, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. I just assumed that it was going to be like Mass Effect 2 and was actually looking forward to playing another first person RPG.
But this game is not what I was expecting at all. Turns out that Deus Ex is essentially a stealth game, and a mean one at that.
(more…)
