Category: Pointless Ramblings

More guinea pigs

Posted on by Nimgimli

Sorry for the lack of posting today. Was feeling rather under the weather and not up to writing.

Which is the prefect excuse for more guinea pig pictures! Which I know most of my gaming readers will roll their eyes at, but I did get a couple of requests for pictures of the two older girls.

Here’s the old girl, Isis, helping Angela play Everquest 2. She’s pretty happy to hang out in her “Cuddly Cup” (the actual name of them, I’m not being cute) getting scritches and being in the midst of things. Look up “nosy” on Wikipedia and you’re likely to find a picture of Isis.

Here she is on duty, making sure no wild carrots sneak into the house unchallenged. Isis and Mimi live in separate cages because Mimi’s youthful exuberance drives Isis crazy. We leave the doors and tops of the ‘cages’ open and the girls show no inclination to ever want to make an escape. They seem to really like their “houses” and are happy to go back to them after playtime.

I don’t have many good pics of Mimi because she never sits still. But here she is, pausing for an instant before continuing to squirm around in circles in *her* “Cuddly Cup” (separate but equal, these girls.) Mimi will be two in later winter, Isis is about four. So far Mimi hasn’t really showed signs of slowing down, but Isis is fairly sedate.

One of our favorite “games” is tug-of-war with this chewing stick of hers. She shows no interest in this stick unless I’m holding it. When she sees that, she gets very focused on pulling it out of my hand, after which she promptly drops it and ignores it. My considerable paunch is her favorite place to perch while playing this game…luckily I’m an extreme sloucher or she’d slide off!

New member of the family

Posted on by Nimgimli

Cavia Porcellus. The common guinea pig. Lab animals, elementary school class pet. *yawn*

I remember smirking as Angela would tell me tales of her pig, Isis. I mean, they’re just large rodents, right? Then I met her and it took about 5 minutes before I was charmed forever. Once Angela and I were living together, I doted on that pig. Then came the day we were in the pet store and a little black and white lady came running to the glass of her cage and peered out at us. Our eyes met, my willpower crumbled, and that’s how Artemis (Mimi for short) came into our home. She got her name from the arrow-shaped markings on her head (Artemis was goddess of the hunt).

Friday, it happened again. I was at the shop at lunch, getting some supplies, and when I spied this darling little creature. I went back to work and couldn’t get her out of my mind. Angela and I chatted via IM, and we decided that taking care of three pigs isn’t much harder than two, and Isis is getting on in years. We didn’t want Mimi left all alone when Isis inevitable crosses the “Rainbow Bridge” (we hope that time is still years off; Isis is only middle-aged in pig terms, but her health isn’t as good as it should be). So after work, I went back to the store, frantic that she would’ve gone to some other home, but there she was, stretching and winking at me. Angela figures she was born not to long before Thanksgiving, so we named her Pomona (technically goddess of fruit trees, but we’re using the name in a more liberal, harvest goddess sense). Short name, Mona.

So Mona joins Isis and Mimi in our happy household of people and pigs. She’s settling in nicely…last night she gorged herself on alfalfa and timothy hay. Today she’s had a few treats and some cuddles. She’s still freaked about being held, but not *too* freaked. She’s in quarantine for a few weeks so hasn’t yet met her goddess sisters, but I’m sure she hears them. Particularly Mimi, who always answers my query of “Want some peppers, Mimi?” with loud shrieks of delight.

I remember having guinea pigs as a kid, but looking back, they weren’t very well cared for (though I had no idea at the time). As an adult, taking proper care of them, these little critters flourish and really get a chance to show off their very distinct personalities. They bring us great joy and are a constant source of amusement, and really they’re a snap to take care of. There’s no greater source of stress relief than having a guinea pig in your lap, purring contently as you pet her.

Poster Child Post Removed

Posted on by Nimgimli

I posted a, er, post this morning, and might have got a lot of it wrong…

I’m at work and can’t really take the time to straighten the mess out, so for now I’m just unpublishing the post. If I’m mis-representing someone, I don’t want to leave the post up there until tonight.

UPDATE: Lunch hour FTW. After discussing some things with some people, I’ve reworked the post to more accurately reflect what was actually said (vs what I thought was being said) and my reaction to one minor point in someone else’s blog.

My apologies for all the drama-queenerie.

Poster Child

Posted on by Nimgimli

[EDIT: Reworked version of the post with -25% whinging on my part.]

In a recent post at /random, Rick used myself and Heartless as examples of people who don’t like Warhammer. (In the original version of this post, I accused him of using me as a Poster Child for the Don’t Like Warhammer campagin, which was a bit over the top on my part, but I just mention it since that’s where the title of this post comes from.)

I found that surprising and kind of upsetting, to be honest. I mean, its true that Warhammer wasn’t grabbing me as much as it was others. But my experience with Heartless is that he has fairly passionate objections to some of the things Mythic has done/is doing. Nothing personal against Heartless (in fact I admire that passion), but I don’t feel I’m in the same category.

I was so surprised that I went back and re-read a bunch of my Warhammer posts. The specific post that Rick linked to had me wondering why I love Fable 2 so much while others hated it, and talked a lot about the immersion I felt in LOTRO. The harshest thing I said about Warhammer in that post was that “I’ve gotten somewhat less enthusiastic about Warhammer.” That’s hardly ranting against the game.

I have posted some introspective rambling trying to understand why I wasn’t finding as much joy in Warhammer as others do, but this post wasn’t complaining about what’s bad in Warhammer. Here’s a quote from that post: “Warhammer is very focused on the gameplay experience, which makes it unique and (in my opinion) very valuable.” Haven’t you ever observed a bunch of people really loving something that you’re not seeing the appeal of, and wondered why you aren’t “getting it?”

To rewind the clock a bit, I let my Warhammer account lapse because I’d promised Angela that I’d play EQ2 with her when the TSO expansion came out. That really had nothing to do with Warhammer and everything to do with domestic bliss in the house. 🙂 And then CoW started playing WoW so I re-upped there to play with them since I missed the herd – this was an unexpected decision but time was of the essence if I wanted to keep any kind of parity with the rest of the guild. (Of course, the bear factored in, too.) Had I planned on having 2 paying subscriptions at once, I probably would’ve kept Warhammer and EQ2, but sometimes we wind up in places we never set out to be in.

There are certainly games I enjoy more than Warhammer Online, and I’m strapped enough right now that I can’t justify paying for a game I’m not playing (though that didn’t stop me from snapping up a Black Friday deal on a 60-day timecard for War). That just seems sensible to me; it isn’t my job to invest in the continued development of any game unless I’m either a) playing it or b) going to reap fiscal rewards from it.

I’ve been continually impressed with how quickly Mythic reacts to player feedback. Of course in order to do that, they need to HAVE player feedback to react to. So I’m not going to feel bad about my sharing things that bother me about the game, but if I’m giving the impression that I have a strong dislike for it, well, that isn’t so. I’m not playing Warhammer now because I have other things to play. If Warhammer were the only MMO on the market, I’d be all over it.

And I’m actually rather excited about the 1.1 patch. When that drops, I’m going to use that 60 day time card and rejoin the War.

Thanksgiving 2008

Posted on by Nimgimli

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States. I’ll be on the road, going to visit my dear old mum, so Dragonchasers will be silent for a couple days.

I really like the idea of Thanksgiving. It’s all about gathering with friends and family and sharing a feast. No over-the-top gift competitions, no crazy-loud partying. It’s my favorite winter holiday.

And stopping to give thanks probably isn’t something we should only do once a year, but life is so crazy hectic that it seems we need a reminder.

I’m generally a glass-half-empty person. I wish I owned a house instead of renting an apartment. I wish I made more money. I wish I had a nicer car. And on and on, blah blah blah, whinge whinge whinge.

But really, I’ve got a lot of be thankful for, and if you’re at your computer reading this, you probably do as well. I’m thankful I don’t go to bed hungry every night, and that I’m not living in fear. Fresh water is at hand at all times. We take stuff like this for granted, but a lot of the world doesn’t.

More topically, I’m thankful that I live in an age where I can reach out and make friends all across the world. I’m old enough that I didn’t grow up with computers or email. Who you knew was who lived nearby, for the most part. Having a ‘pen pal’ from a few states away was pretty exotic.

Now the only barrier to making friends, really, is language. Geography has become irrelevant in many ways. That’s pretty incredible.

And since this is a gaming blog…I’m thankful that there are virtual worlds to visit with these far-flung friends. We all bitch about our games, but when you step back and think about it…they’re all pretty awesome. If you plucked someone from as recently as the mid-1970’s and sat them down in front of WoW or EQ2 or LOTRO, it’d blow them away. LOTRO in particular… grab a flower child grooving on Middle Earth in 1969 and drop ’em into LOTRO and they’d think they’d gotten some very fine acid indeed.

It’s a good time to be alive, y’know?

And my final thing to be thankful for is that you’re reading my blog. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me yammer: it means the world to me.

Here’s wishing you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving. And for those of you in other parts of the world, well, I wish you a very happy Thursday. 🙂

Romantics & Dreamers

Posted on by Nimgimli

Sometimes I just don’t understand other gamers. Why do they hate the things I love, and vice versa? There’s something about me that’s just different from most gamers. And I finally figured out what it was.

I’m a romantic and a dreamer.

Fable 2 actually got me thinking about this. I loved the game, and the ending was incredibly moving to me. It left me feeling quiet and thoughtful for a long time. But I read other impressions of the game and they’ll tell you the ending sucked. Huh?

Well, if you’re playing with your fingers and eyes, the ending did suck. If, like me, your heart was thrown into the mix, the ending was amazing. One of the most thought-provoking endings I’ve ever encountered.

This morning Angela was working on a web site that I’d done the database design for. I knew she’d have a certain number of questions about the choices I’d made, so I didn’t want to get too engrossed in anything. So I logged into LOTRO to work on some Shire deeds. The character I was running is well beyond the level of the Shire but he never did the deeds in there. So mostly I had to run around and ‘discover’ landmarks, and hunt lots of very gray bugs and slugs and wolves.

And y’know, I was enchanted. Whenever I’ve been away from LOTRO for any amount of time, I’m a bit stunned when I return. The landscapes, the music, the people going about their business…it all feels very much like a “world” to me, and one where there is still hope and happiness. Watching the sun come up and the clouds move slowly across the sky. Watching brooks babbling over rocks, and the sunlight reflecting off the water. It all feels very relaxing. It feels like I really am in Middle Earth. And it makes me want to defend this place from the intrusion of darkness.

And at the same time, I know for a lot of gamers what I was doing would be considered pointless grinding and a huge flaw in the game. They wouldn’t stop to watch a shrew clean its face or nibble on a tidbit it’d found. They wouldn’t notice the sky. They’d find a hobbit outfitter that sells cosmetic items and snort and think “What a waste of money..why would I get this for my toon?”

Actually, I think “toon” is significant. If you think of your characters as “toons” then yeah, every time you think about them you’re reminding yourself that this is all really just a spreadsheet with graphics layered on and that there’s a most efficient way to increase those numbers quickly. I think of my characters as characters or, more often, as “me”. I have to deliberately say “Gillain did this” rather than naturally sliding into “I did this”.

I feel faintly embarrassed to be admitting this. Ysh was talking about Wizard 101 a few days ago and someone commented that he was too old and too male to play Wizard 101. It’s just part of our culture (particularly among the young, and I consider anyone under 35 or so in that category) that guys are supposed to be hard and apathetic about beauty (except for hot women, of course) and fluff. We’re supposed to be all about the killing and efficient leveling. Competition and being the strongest and the best.

But that just isn’t me, at least a lot of the time. I’m about the experience. That’s why I get so excited when I run into Gotrek & Felix in a tavern in Altdorf. It’s why I mutter under my breath when I have to slog through a marsh and ruin my new boots. It’s why killing 10 rats isn’t a problem for me, but killing 10 bunnies is.

I mean yeah, I really like getting a new level, and I enjoy winning a bout of RvR. But not all the time. I need more than that, and maybe that’s why I’ve gotten somewhat less enthusiastic about Warhammer. Mythic deliberately designed a GAME rather than a WORLD and I kind of miss the world aspects sometimes.

Anyway, no real point to all this. I’m certainly not saying one way is better than the other (and I don’t think there’s a dichotomy here…it’s definitely a gradient kind of issue). I just find it harder to find other gamers like me than I do the type that is very goal-driven and not really about the extras. Maybe we need to form a support group or something.

Thanks for reading all that, if you’re still here. 🙂 As a reward, here’s a couple of ‘wallpaper’ screens I took this morning. Very valuable, very rare!!

lotro lotro

TGIF, WRUP, and other acronyms

Posted on by Nimgimli

So last night was all about the Thursday Night Football, thus no gaming was done. In fact overall damned little gaming got accomplished this week, much to my chagrin. XFire says I spend 2 hours playing Warhammer in the past 7 days, and that’s the game I spent the most time on, PC-wise (not that I always trust those numbers). I did play the Left 4 Dead demo on the 360 a couple of times, and spent quite a bit of time at Nile Online.

Yes, fascinating stuff. But what of the future? This is an odd week for me. I finished Fable 2 and didn’t/don’t want to wade into some lengthy single-player game because next week the LOTRO and EQ2 expansions hit, plus the “New XBox Experience” arrives (which, granted, will probably only be interesting for an evening). I could be playing Warhammer but fear getting sucked back into it, only to have my account turn off early next week.

So I feel like I’m in a quasi-holding pattern. I might stalk follow Ysharros into Wizardry 101 over the weekend, just because it sounds fun and easy. Quick to download, easy to learn… just some nice concentrated fun. Or at least that’s the vibe I’m getting.

Or I could fire up the EQ2 account and get re-acquainted, but I dunno… does it make sense to get re-acquainted only to install an expansion and have to relearn stuff? Might be just as easy to wait.

Curiously, I’ve paid very little attention to the big MMO expansions. I know WOW has Lich King and a Death Knight class and that’s about all I know. Moria has legendary weapons and 2 new classes, which I know very little about (but I’ll roll a Warden because I always roll any class called Ranger or Warden). The EQ2 expansion I know ZERO about, except that Angela is super-psyched for it. I guess it adds… new stuff. I don’t even remember the full name of it!! LOL.

This makes me an un-informed consumer but a happy gamer. I love discovering stuff on my own, and THEN researching it to learn the nuances. Werit wrote a post called Too Much Information that captures my feelings well enough that it seems pointless for me to repeat them here.

Apparently there’s a big free content update either going into Age of Conan, or already launched. Interesting. I’d like to jump back into AoC at some point. But then Ardwulf has me wanting to take another look at Vanguard, too. Plus Chronicles of Spellborn launches sometime soon, and I wanted to look at that as well. And I’m definitely not ‘done’ with Warhammer Online!

Is it any wonder that MMOs have churn problems these days? So many interesting choices and it’s hard to justify two concurrent subscriptions for most people. Add to that the lure of so many fantastic single-player games out now. It all just feels like too much. Are there enough gaming dollars to support all this content??

Anyway, let’s get to the WRUP part: What are YOU playing this weekend?

My go-round with cybercrime

Posted on by Nimgimli

This post isn’t game related.

Monday I got our monthly bank statement from our “extra” checking account. I was horrified to find over $200 in charges to iTunes on it. Since this isn’t our main account, there wasn’t much money in it, but the Overdraft Protection had kicked in and now we were in the red. A quick check showed our ATM cards were all where they were supposed to be, so I immediately called the bank (Citizen’s Bank).

The very unhelpful person I spoke to couldn’t do much for me. She claimed she couldn’t deactivate the cards or in any way ‘freeze’ the account so more damage couldn’t be done. I’d have to go to a physical bank to do that. She did offer to start the paperwork on an affidavit to file a fraud report. Said that it would arrive for me to sign in 7-10 business days, and after I signed it and returned it an investigation would get underway.

After I hung up with her, I contacted Apple. They were even less helpful. There was nothing they could do, said I should speak to my credit card company (even though the charges weren’t on a credit card) and/or file a report with the police.

A bit of googling revealed that iTunes fraud is really, really common. And no, I don’t have an iTunes account connected to that checking account.

Tuesday, the banks were closed, so I had to wait until this morning to speak to someone, wondering all the time if even more funds were being sucked out of my account. Once I got there, the Customer Service rep started digging into the details of the situation. She discovered that it was Angela’s ATM card number that had been used (wouldn’t it be nice if our bank statements showed this info?) so Angela had to meet me at the bank to sign the affidavit. The rep did all the paperwork, canceled the card, got the signature and told us it’d take about 10 business days to get reimbursed.

I was chatting with her while waiting for Angela to arrive, and she told me that “most” of the claims that she saw were related to iTunes purchases. And that indeed, Apple wasn’t the least bit interested in helping consumers, or the banks apparently. Now this is 1 rep speaking, so you have to take it as hearsay. But I didn’t leave feeling warm and fuzzy about Apple or iTunes.

I feel a little better now. We still have to cover the overdraft until we get reimbursed, which is annoying but not crippling. I just wanted to share my experience and encourage you all to keep an eye on your credit card and banking statements and make sure nothing fishy is happening.

Honestly I have stacks of statements from this account that I never opened since we so rarely use it; I’m not even sure why I opened this month’s. But you can be sure I’ll be checking all my accounts every month, and probably checking them online once a week to boot. We don’t know how/when the info got stolen, though we’re going to do some checking. The last transaction Angela made with her card was to her hosting provider, and that was in the middle of October. Before then she hadn’t used the card in months. I don’t want to name names until I know for sure, but I suspect her provider has a security hole in their system.

Getting ready for Moria

Posted on by Nimgimli

I installed the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online tonight (you can download and install the files ahead of time so you’ll be ready for launch) and then fired the game up to make sure everything was working properly.

And promptly got sucked in.

One of the drawbacks of Warhammer being a massive RvR game is that the graphics can’t be as lush as they can be with a primarily PvE game. When the whole intend is to have 100 player characters on screen at once, you have to keep a close eye on your level of detail.

Thing is, in my time away from LOTRO I’d forgotten how great it looks, so it was a pleasant treat indeed; like having a brand new game in a way! I took some pics to try and share with you, though some of this stuff doesn’t translate well to static screens. But look at this Orc to the right. Can you see the level of detail in his face? That’s one angry ugly!! (As always, click the image to get a bigger, or at least clearer, version.) Most of the mobs have a ton of detail, though often you’ll never enjoy it until you’re much higher level than they are and can take the time to really look at them. 🙂

This one, well, I need to work on my timing. Aethgar is a duel-wielder and he’s about to make a move where he slashes horizontally with both weapons, but sadly it just looks like he’s trying to hug himself. But can you make out the rain coming down, the drops hitting the water? See how the target rings are distorted by the water the combatants are standing in? What I can’t capture in a screenshot are the flashes of lightning that turn everything almost white for an instance, or the rumblings of thunder. And I should definitely have turned the camera up to get some sky shots. LOTRO has great skies.

And what kind of armor is Aethgar wearing? Well, what you see is his “social clothing.” This particular number I got as a gift for registering at mmorpg.com (I think). You can opt to display your real armor or your social stuff. This means everyone can really have a unique look without sacrificing their stats.

None of this is unique to LOTRO, but I’d been away long enough that it was just really pleasing to experience it again. And there are definitely things that bug me about LOTRO, like the lack of autofacing in combat, and the fact that quest items take up inventory slots. But being re-delighted with the game makes giving up Warhammer for a while a bit less painful. Now I wonder how I’ll react to going back to EQ2!!

Less negativity = feeling better

Posted on by Nimgimli

In some ways it is grimly amusing how many of us bloggers can take something as fun as gaming and turn it into a source of negativity. I both produce irrelevant negativity, and consume it. I’ve been trying to stop, on both counts.

From the posting side of things, I’ve been trying to focus on the joy that comes from this wonderful hobby of ours. I will still say negative things about a game I’m playing, but only in the context of a “review-like” post that is meant to help you decide whether you want to buy or avoid. I’m trying to stay far away from “Game X [which I am not playing] sucks because of Y” and staying even farther away from negative comments about other gamers and their choices.

From a consumption point of view, I’ve been thinning down the list of sites and blogs in my RSS reader. If a blogger or site writes the kinds of posts that are full of negativity, I’m removing that site. I understand how cathartic venting in text can be; I’m not judging anyone! But I just don’t want to read that kind of post any more.

Since trying on this new attitude, I’ve found I’ve been enjoying gaming a lot more. I have more time to play (fewer sites to read = more free time). And I’ve felt better emotionally, and this feeling extends beyond gaming.

I just too easily slip into the Quixotic desire to debate/debunk posts that I feel are unfairly negative towards a product or service. And those can become real tar baby issues for me, leading towards frustration and wasted energy. They quickly become toxic.

Anyway, that’s my Monday morning rambling for this week. Please call me on it if you see me slipping back into writing pointlessly negative posts. Gaming (to me at least) is supposed to be about discovering new worlds and having fun. I’m going to try to keep my focus there.