Penny Arcade

No, you can’t actually name a star after a person.  Well, you can, but nobody else will know about it and it doesn’t matter.  But what if you actually could, for reals?

I think that would be better.

Alright, so the latest Microsoft rumor was not a rumor, because they never are, and this one is so interesting.

It shouldn’t be, of course.  It’s utterly pedestrian.  Subsidizing hardware with a service charge is how you sell expensive things to people who can’t afford them, or can’t afford it all at once.  It’s about context, though: the gaming console has historically been sold to people who place a premium on its ownership.  Eventually the top part of the funnel gets wider, certainly, and prices drop.  But seeing this model here, where I live, is like finding a bear in your driveway.  What happens when you launch a console in this way?

You can look at Amazon or whatever and see that the hardware goes for $276 and up.  Obviously, you and I probably aren’t interested in such a device for our personal use: four gigs isn’t enough to copy a single disc to the local drive, reaping the benefits thereby.  The Kinect is deeply, profoundly optional as a peripheral.  It doesn’t matter, though: “we” already own the thing.  “We” have probably owned several, statistically speaking.  This box is for another type of person, and that person exists in far greater numbers than the stalwart faithful which huddle in our cloister.

The thing to say right now is that there won’t be another console generation.  That’s primarily some ragged, street-preacher style Apocalyptics; we may safely disregard it.  If they’d like to mitigate the grim prophetics somewhat, and suggest that we may not recognize the next console generation - because of its shape, or its method of propagation, or for any other reason - we may find common ground.

(CW)TB out.

it’s contagious

I’m playing a lot of Tera right now. This is always when I regret playing a beta as I push through all the content I already saw. I’m playing a Sorcerer now though which is a change and that takes some of the sting out of doing all the same quests again. As of last night I finally hit the point that I got to in the beta (around level 18).

I’ve had the opportunity to play some high level content at various events and I’m really excited to get to that point with my own character. Something about the combat in Tera just really scratches an itch for me. The combat in games like WoW or even SW:TOR is sort of like old naval warfare. Two big ships sidle up next to each other and just unload. At the end of the day you just have to hope you survive it. Tera is much more action oriented. Enemies give you tells before they attack and you need to move out of the way. You need to be actively blocking and dodging if you want to survive some of these fights. Spells and arrows have trajectories and if you move out of their path you don’t get hit! No more fireballs that track you as you dodge out of the way. So when I have some NPC telling me to go get ten serrated fangs, I’m actually excited because it means I get to go play.

And trust me you will be asked to collect ten thingamajigs. Tera is a strange case in that way. For all the innovation they’ve packed into the combat, the quest system is a classic MMO grind. In SW:TOR I wanted to complete quests to see the next part of my character’s story. The planet Taris was a ridiculously boring slog but I pushed through it because I loved the story. With Tera I don’t give two shits about the story, in fact I’m not even reading most of these quests. I click accept and then check the map to see where I need to go. I do the quests because I want to fight. I want to kill stuff and so a quest that tells me to kill stuff is actually exactly what I’m in the market for. In SW:TOR I put up with the gameplay so that I could get the story. In Tera I put up with the story so I can get the gameplay.

So how long will I stick with Tera? It’s hard to say. If you count my time spent in the beta I probably played SW:TOR for about 5 months before I got tired of it. Honestly in my opinion that’s a pretty good investment. I can’t say right now if I’ll still be playing Tera in September. At the very least I think it’s worth a purchase. Give it a month and see what you think.

-Gabe out

I was super excited about Mobile Frame Zero, to the extent that I was sort of bummed when the Kickstarter succeeded because I loved going back for updates and seeing what people were building.  I had a chance to recapture the old magic today when the rules preview popped up in my mailbox: you can grab them too, backer or no, and play games this week if you want to!  It’s conceptualized around Lego, but you can use whatever you want to.  You aren’t going to get in trouble, or anything; there’s no international body that governs this.

(CW)TB

The 2012 Child’s Play golf tournament is halfway sold out now. I’ve decided this is my year to really get back into the game. I haven’t played seriously in about 15 years. I played high school golf as a young man but I got sick of the competition and gave up the game to focus on my art. I love the game though and in just the last couple of weeks I’ve probably been out four times. I’m not shooting like I was when I was 18 but I’m having a blast and I’m getting better each time I go out.

I’m using an iPhone app called GolfLogix to track my progress this year. So far I’ve played two rounds with it and I’m really impressed. You can see my scorecard from yesterday right here (jesus I can’t believe I just shared that). The app gives you an easy way to track things like fairways hit, GIR, and average putts. It will also give you yardages using your phone’s GPS. I was honestly skeptical about that part but having used it a couple times now I’m sold. I played with a buddy who was using a physical range finder to shoot his yardage. We compared numbers a few times and my phone was always within a yard or two of his reading. Anyway if you’re looking for a good Golf app I highly recommend it.

It’s worth mentioning that the CP tourney is for players of all skill levels. If you shoot in the 100’s or the 80’s we want you to attend. The four person scramble format is a a great way for players of all skill levels to compete together and have a good time. So please check out the tourney website for all the details. We’d love to have you join us for a day of golf for a good cause.

-Gabe out