The internet revolution is hitting RPGs hard, and hugely for the better. Self-publishing and pdfs and search engines bypass the costs of physical printing and let everyone who wants to get a toe in the waters do so. Of course, there’s a lot of half-baked ideas floating around out there now, but that’s where search […]
On the subject of e-sports and League of Legends, I have to take a moment to vent a pet peeve concerning LoL casters. It comes in two parts. First, part of their job is to drum up the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding a game. The game itself doesn’t always cooperate. Sometimes both teams lapse into […]
Over the course of my journaling hiatus, Eileene’s sister managed to hook us both into watching League of Legends as a spectator sport. LoL is, at heart, a capture-the-base game. Five-man teams choose characters with different strengths and weaknesses, and attempt to destroy the enemy base before their own is destroyed. There’s a lot more […]
So the General Knoxx expansion to Borderlands has a boss creature, just as you might expect. Crawmerax, a really, really big version of the Pandoran craw worm, a burrowing lobster-like horror, is the ultimate challenge and the ultimate loot source in all the game and its add-on content. I stumbled on its lair early, but […]
Dave loaned me his copy of Legends of Anglerre, the fantasy incarnation of the FATE RPG. Predictably, LoA varies from other FATE titles—not just by addition of rules specific to the setting, but in rules one might expect them to share. This variation is born of an open gaming license and a do-it-yourself attitude. There’s […]
Our weekly RPG session suffered an enormous cluster-fuck this week. In game, events are coming to a head. We’ve collected almost all the magical macguffins and must soon decide to remake or destroy them, with tragic consequences either way. A woman powered by the spirit of Lilith, mother of demons, is on a murderous rampage, […]
This week’s “Extra Credits†is a particularly good one, insightful at a level that an amateur observer of the electronic games industry, like me, can digest. It treats the free-to-play business model for games, which allows players to play a game for free but gets them to cough up their dough for microtransactions: small purchases […]
Last night, I was growing bored again with World of Warcraft. I’d signed up for one of their new free-to-play accounts to keep myself entertained on nights when Eileene is out of the house, and enjoyed the nostalgia. But I’ve reached the level 20 cap imposed on free accounts with a warrior, priest, and mage […]
For Eileene’s birthday, I got her some short skirts and short shorts. They were a good choice; twice this month alone she’d expressed a desire for skirts that (a) were shorter and sexier, and (b) fit better since she’s lost so much weight. It saves her from shopping for clothes, a task both of us […]
We watched The Adjustment Bureau last nigh on DVD. Ordinary. The reality-bending, head-game-y tone was undermined by some flagrant shortcuts, as such films are prone to. I wouldn’t bring it up at all, but for the peculiar experience of watching it through a particular mental lens. A spoiler alert is in order here. If you […]