Penny Arcade

The bear issue notwithstanding, her fixation on the outside world is shrouded in mystery.  While it is incontrovertible that The Night-time Is The Right Time, I submit that it is the right time for absolute translation into a Massive role-playing game and not the right time to have one’s foot pierced by a discarded hypodermic needle in a public park.

The first three years of the site, I read and responded to every mail I received.  When unsolicited mail began to become a major factor in my correspondence I was initially able to hold on, culling certain words with filters for example.  When the viruses began to hit, the viruses that harvest e-mails from files sitting in your temporary browser directories, I declared that Spam had essentially won and that human dialogue had been crushed.  My addy is more than five years old, at this point.  It is no longer simply “low hanging fruit” for crawlers to snatch and return to the Spam Lords, is is the very address they use to christen a new bulk-mailing.  I gave up, and I am very sorry if we were discussing something very interesting two years ago when then I winked out of existence.   

I have had an on again, off again relationship with this method of communication ever since.  The reality is that it takes six or seven hours of constant typing to mail everyone back, and if I’m not going to mail everyone back then I don’t see the point of doing it.  It creates a situation where I will give up the best part of each day in order to correspond with a person who clearly hates me, or to corral the mails from some new virus with potent RegEx jiujitsu.  I don’t mind the jiujitsu portion, but handling this shit manual wasn’t working anymore and it was starting to electrocute my mind.

The thing that broke me was these new spams that just combine random odd words over a certain length.  I can’t disregard them, they create chains and combos that pummel my cerebral cortex.  They’re obviously nonsense, but I can’t help but create some rational context for them to operate in unity.  My favorite thus far has been “Circumspect Gourd,” which I simply must name a band after.  It really does evoke an especially cautious pumpkin. 

To make a long story short, if you use the full version of Outlook you really do need SpamBayes.  Out of 2049 messages, I’ve had one false positive.  Anything it isn’t sure about goes into a folder called Junk Suspects, which you then use to teach the filter which mails about cocks are unsolicited.  The most important thing for me isn’t that it is snaring Spam, as much as I hate that stuff.  It’s a psychological shift that has allowed me to “game” my inbox and look at unsolicited mail in a new way.  I’m actually excited to get spam now, because every new entreaty from a nonexistent cheerleader improves my learning filter and reduces spammer efficiency. 

A couple updates for recent posts:

As regards the Star Wars Galaxies expansion Jump To Lightspeed, readers wrote in on a variety of topics.  One of the things I found odd about the angrier mails is that it appears to be an accepted fact that Galaxies is either incomplete or in desperate need of an overhaul, even by the grim-faced acolytes writing in to defend the game.  If there were a way to get in on the expansion without soiling myself interacting with the first game, they might have a deal on their hands.  It sounds as though the original game is in for an end of the month price cut, in addition to some new features that make it easier for new players which sweetens the deal a bit.  SWG Stratics is also compiling a FAQ to retain those queries which are often put forth.  People took me to task for not mentioning X-Wing: Alliance as the sequel to X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter, but I’ve always seen XvT (with it’s multiplayer focus) as its own franchise, and the campaign based gameplay of Alliance to hearken back to the classic X-Wing or Tie-Fighter games.  You can still be displeased with me, but that was my rationale.  It should be noted that there is an upgrade project for X-Wing: Alliance to modernize some of the assets - just as Rebirth does for System Shock 2, let’s say.  These upgraded models are also available in the Darksaber Ultimate Craft Pack.

Gabe has been well served by the PA forum thread we’ve mentioned, wherein people who are not fuckers post their Gamertags and then engage in rollicking rounds of online games with other people who are not dicks.  I’ve been informed by the inestimable Chewy that he’s set up a league dedicated to this sort of activity expressly for European Live players, a link to which can be found here. 

(CW)TB out.

i’ve got half a mind to die

The PAX site got updated again with some cool new stuff. Here’s a list of some of the new additions:

1. Special guest speakers added

-Steve Bowler (Midway),
-Shekhar Dhupelia (Studio Gigante),
-Geoff Zatkin (monolith)
-and Pork from porkfry.com.

2. Console Tournament descriptions and rules added in the event schedule

-Halo,
-SC2,
-SCPT,
-GGXX,
-SSBM,
-Double Dash

3. A live piano performance of selected Final Fantasy music arranged by Michael Huang (fantasyreborn.com) and performed by Conney Lin.

It’s really shaping up to be an incredible show.  Be sure and hit up the PAX forum to see if one of the dozen or so geek carpools will be rolling through your city.

Also check out the awesome PAX T-Shirt design from Kiko over at Gameskins.com

These shirts will be on sale at PAX along with a ton of other cool shit from PA and Gameskins.

-Gabe out

Looks like there’s a PA “Group” for finding gamertags over at Snackbar Games.  Another handy way to do it.

(CW)TB

When you read this article, you will have an orgasm.  Take whatever precautions you deem necessary.

(CW)TB

I’ve mentioned Codename: Panzers with enthusiasm on more than one occasion - Panzers, with its RTS/RPG hybrid gameplay and fancy multiplayer modes.  I just saw on VE3D that there’s a demo available for the game - not sure what features are included, might be fun to take the full co-op for a spin.

Oh, and something else I’ve wanted to mention.  I called Full Spectrum Warrior my favorite game of the last show, which was a tough call because Starcraft: Ghost has an intangible magic which permeates it.  I feel secure in my ultimate decision, though - I just wanted to comment on one of the screenshots that was released.  You can click on it to see a larger version, if you want. 

I saw this in an early build I had no right seeing.  It didn’t look anywhere near as good as what we’ll be getting at retail - but this vision blur was there.  It basically lets you know where a soldier’s attention is focused in a really intuitive way.  It’s something I thought was neat.  Another thing, in the version that Pandemic gave the Army your soldiers swear like sailors.  I mean, all the time.  They’re professional, but they’re there to do a fucking job and they let you know that.

(CW)TB

Stormy sent me a new Hook-Up a couple weeks ago, and I put into a page and upoaded it, but going back over the posts on the front page I can’t see any mention of it.  There could be any number of culprits - as a post near the time I got the article states, I was pretty sick and not a little delirious.  But the news system has also been eating updates lately, reverting to old updates, doing all kinds of crazy crap, so who knows.  Let’s just say it’s my fault.

 
At any rate, apologies to Stormy.  It’s a great update, as his updates tend to be.

(CW)TB

I’ve been hearing strange things lately to this effect - and from more than just this source.  I have not arrived at a conclusion about whether or not this would be a good thing.

(CW)TB