Author: Jason

The abnormal tank & the rogue

Gaming

Back in the days of EverQuest, the wife and I used to duo when we couldn’t find groups.  This isn’t strange, as I have found most couples do this.  What probably is strange is that she played a rogue and I played a monk.  With monk avoidance, the ability to bandage up to 70% (I think they could even do up to 100% later on), a weapon or item that summoned bandages, items that rooted or snared, and rogue evasion, I could tank experience giving mobs while the wife destroyed them from behind.  We really enjoyed traveling the world and finding places and monsters we could fight in this fashion.

Recently, we’ve started playing EQ2X (EverQuest 2 Extended free-to-play) and as per usual she rolled up a rogue, a brigand to be precise.  Now, I didn’t have the option to roll a monk (you have to pay for them), but I decided to roll up a templar.  As we’ve been playing, I’ve been focusing on aggro generating skills and damage and mitigation.  I’m a tanking cleric, so to speak.  I pull, I debuff and nuke and she destroys them from behind.

We’ve played this way in most of the games that we’ve played.  I play a somewhat versatile class that can semi-tank and survive while she plays a DPS heavy class that focuses on the killing.  I really enjoy it and it makes for interesting game play as we level.  Me trying to find new ways to hold aggro with a class that isn’t supposed to do that, and her trying not to steal aggro with a class practically designed to steal aggro from tanks.  I think the only game we strayed from this was LotRO in which we played a Champion/Minstrel and a Captain/Lore-master.

Do you have a favorite duo in games?

Dragon*Con 2010: Lessons Learned

Dragon*Con

Each year at Dragon*Con, I like to think I notice things that can make the next year better.  So, here is what I got from this year.

  • Costumes do, in fact, make things more fun.
    I’ve been going to Dragon*Con, off and on, for … a lot of years.  I know the first year I went was after high school (graduated in 1992) but before leaving college (graduated 1998).  I’ve been about a dozen times and before this year the closest I’ve come to wearing a costume is to wear a t-shirt relating to something in fandom.  This year, however, I put on a tattoo shirt, one of those mesh things that makes it look like you have a full chest, back and sleeves of tattoos.  So simple, and yet it was the start of about a dozen dozen conversations.  That shirt will be making an appearance next year, and I’ve resolved that I will have a costume for every day next year.  I’ve said that before, but this time I mean it.
  • Food in the room doesn’t have to be crap.
    In previous years, the wife and I have brought down snacks and sandwich stuff (peanut butter & jelly, cold cuts and condiments), but this year we had a George Foreman Grill and hotdogs.  Next year we’ll probably expand that to burgers, both beef and veggie, and maybe more.  The biggest revelation, however, was that we didn’t have to actually bring down food.  There are two Publix stores within easy reach of the hotels that we could just hit up for supplies after getting downtown.  Next year, when we get down there on Thursday, we’ll just make a store run rather than haul all that stuff with us.
  • Bitter people are going to be bitter.
    Some folks apparently like to be angry. They’ve decided they hate something (even if it is entirely hypocritical) and not a thing you can say will change their mind. Once you have identified a bitter person who is entrenched in their bitterness, just walk away.  And if you can’t walk away, try to steer the conversation toward something that will make them walk away or at least to something they aren’t bitter about.
  • Working staff can be fun.
    I imagine that working registration and dealing with people who hate you because they blame you for the long line has got to suck.  But working a track can be an absolute blast if a) the rest of the staff is cool, b) the track is something you are interested in, and c) you don’t mind missing large chunks of the con.  Now, this may be my opinion and entirely biased, but the MMORPG Track staff is definitely cool.  And I love MMORPGs.  And I’ve been coming to con enough that I’m not really “missing” those chunks as much as I’ve seen them before.  Besides, the con is practically 24/7, so there is always time to see the sights.  Anyway, I had an absolute blast and look forward to working staff again next year.
  • Internet access is highway robbery unless you do something about it.
    Every year at con, I always want to be able to check email or browse the net, or even post my blog entries.  The host hotels typically charge around $12 to $15 per day for access.  This year, I was pointed toward Boingo.  If you happened to be staying in or spending lots of time in the Marriott Marquis, then signing up for Boingo’s $9.95 a month plan right before con and then cancelling it after is far far cheaper than paying the Marriott prices.  I don’t know if there are equivalents for the other hotels, but I tend to always stay in the Marriott.  I usually end up spending $60 on Internet access during con, so spending $10 instead was a nice savings.

And that appears to be all that I learned at this year’s con.

Movie Round-Up: September 10th, 2010

Reviews

Resident Evil: AfterlifeResident Evil: Afterlife:

I loved the first film.  I liked the second one a lot.  The third one was fun, but I had some issues with it.  I’d make a comment about downward trends, but who would I be fooling?  No one.  Of course I’m going to go see this movie.  It’s zombies, it’s action, and it’s in 3D – and that’s all I need to know.  Now, the only question is who will I go see this with?

Playing for Keeps

Reviews

Playing for Keeps by Mur LaffertyMur Lafferty crafts a world where superheroes must be licensed to practice, and are paid by the city through tax revenue.  A world where those with powers apply to the Academy and have their powers tested.  If you are deemed worthy, you get a name and a suit and get to fight crime.  If you are deemed weak, you get to try and live like a normal person and try to forget your aspirations of heroism.  This is the world of Playing for Keeps.

Keepsie Branson’s power is that she can “hold” (put it a sort of stasis) anyone who tries to take anything that belongs to her.  She runs a bar across the street from the Academy that is frequented by people rejected by the Academy.  She has a waitress who can lift and balance anything on a tray, a cook who always knows what people want to eat and can make it, and friends who can learning things about people by smelling them, heal people one inch at a time, have super strength in five minute bursts, fire streams of feces from his hands, and other “useless” powers.  They wind up getting caught in the middle between the heroes and the villains, and have to learn to make use of their powers to survive.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the book.  It’s short, and certainly not a time waster.  You could do worse.

Dragon*Con 2010: The Aftermath

Dragon*Con

Day Four is done, and the con has drawn to a close.  The MMORPG Track’s final panels ran smooth, and it was great to have about forty people come by to tell us what we did right and wrong and looking forward toward next year at the Post MMOrtem.

Today, the day after, is about sleep and unpacking and staying off my feet as much as possible.

This year was my first on staff with Dragon*Con and the MMORPG Track, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.  Not only are the track staff a great bunch of folks, and it helps that I really enjoy the subject matter, but just being a part of the staff just feels great.  I lost count of the number of times people asked me for help on where to find things or what was going on and I was able to help them out.  (It is also a testament to my many years of attendance and that I’m a giant schedule/map memorizing nerd that I knew what to answer most of the time.)  Plus, there are bonuses.  Like, you know when you are walking through the tunnel and you see some people stopping to take photos even though there are signs that say not to and you can’t do much but maybe yell at them?  Well, when I saw that, I just walked up, put my hand on their shoulder and said, “Hey, great costume, and you guys deserve to get photos, but you can’t do it in the tunnel. Please take it to one of the hotels on either end where there is more room.”  And the best part?  They listened and moved.  Not once did anyone ever give me a tough time, they just said sorry, smiled and moved.  Sure, a bonus like that doesn’t get you to skip lines, but it does earn you the gratitude of the dozens and dozens of people who were stuck in a slow tunnel thanks to the photo takers.  It feels good to help make the con a good experience for the people who attend.  I’m really looking forward to being a part of it again next year.

Well, maybe… on the last day, the wife and I got some Chinese food and I got quite possibly the best fortune ever.

Best Fortune Ever
click for full size version

Yep, that says I will be the President of a small country.  So, I might be busy.

Dragon*Con 2010: Day Four

Dragon*Con

And we comes to Day Four of Dragon*Con, the cruelest of Dragon*Con days.  Why?  Because most people don’t stay through Tuesday, seeing as how everything is done by 5pm (the panel schedule is so light that most people won’t find much to attend), it means they have to check out.  By noon.  Or 11am. Or whatever hour their hotel kicks them out.  And many people when faced with the dilemma of having their luggage sit in the holding area under bellhop guard or just proceeding out to the car and heading home will head home.  Checking out means Dragon*Con is over.

Where will I be today?  In the Sheraton, Savannah room, hiding.  We run a panel on legal issues in MMOs, another on Guild Wars 1 & 2, and our last panel of the con is where we talk about how the track did: what rocked, what sucked, and what we missed.

But what about yesterday?  The Guild panel was great.  Sandeep (Zaboo) and Jeff (Vork) are both great guys, oh and Sean Becker too (the director).  After that I took my annual tour around the exhibitors and dealers halls, things were bought, pictures will be posted in the aftermath post tomorrow.  I enjoyed the rest of my afternoon in my hotel room, trying to stay off my tired little feet.  But after not going to and later hearing about the Kingdom of Loathing party, I knew I had to go.  Plus, you know, last night of the con.  Essentially, it’s like going to a room party in a hotel, only you don’t have to have a secret handshake to get in, we post it in the schedule and invite everyone!  Day Three was a smashing success.

And look at that… I didn’t stumble into bed until nearly 5am and my 8am post is only 45 minutes late.  I am a con warrior!

Dragon*Con 2010: Day Three

Dragon*Con

Day One, 8am post… Day Two, 8am post… Day Three? Not 8am.  We’ll get to that in a minute.

Today I’ll be work the Guild Q & A with Vork and Zaboo and then I’m done.  The track has a few nifty things for the MMO-inclined like a Global Agenda panel, EVE Online, City of Heroes, a session about guild management and more.  Then of course, we have the Kingdom of Loathing party tonight, which was great last year so I’d expect it to be great again.

Now, let’s talk about Day Two… We had almost 600 people show up to see us show off Cataclysm.  Then nearly 200 to hear Sandeep Parikh talk about The Legend of Neil.  180 came to hear about the best WoW Addons.  At 5:30, we did the WoW Meet & Greet with fun and prizes, which I don’t have numbers for because I worked the camera instead of the door.  This was such a blast, especially the dance content due to the insane guy who actually did the WoW Troll dance.  Then we had over a hundred people for a second night of machinima.  And then… At 10pm we opened the doors on our MMO Gathering of Heroes.  I don’t have any final numbers, but I hear over 1,000 people dropped by throughout the evening.  We danced.  We drank.  We danced some more.  I stumbled back to the room around 3am.  It was a great day.

Dragon*Con 2010: Day Two

Dragon*Con

Day Two is often less painful that Day One… except when you need to get up and dawn thirty.  Gooooooood Morning, Dragon*Connnnnn! This is not a test! This is MMO!!!  Time to rock it from Azeroth to the realms that are free!  Today I’ve got lined up another long day of working panels.  Starting with the Live Snarkcast in the Savannah room then I’m off to the World of Warcraft Q&A in the Capitol Ballroom.  Next, a Q&A with Sandeep Parikh and his work on The Legend of Neil.  After that it’s back to Savannah for WoW Addon Kung Fu, back again to the Capitol Ballroom for the WoW Meet & Greet and Trivia, and finally once more to Savannah for a Machinima panel.  Tonight is also the big MMO Gathering of Heroes party which is sponsored by SOE, AQ Worlds and Comcast Xfinity.  I’m not working it, but I’ll probably be there.

So how did Day One go? Every panel went great and we had attendance in numbers from 50 to 141.  The only small turnout that I worked was the Funcom panel, which we expected because Funcom wasn’t able to attend, but we love them so we ran the panel anyway.  I didn’t stick around for the Guild Q&A with Vork and Zaboo because I needed food and sleep, and I decided to spend the rest of my night wandering the con.

Movie Round-Up: September 3rd, 2010

Random Thoughts

Going the America Machete DistanceApologies if you saw this earlier, Dragon*Con got in the way and I didn’t finish it…

The American:

I have no idea what this movie is about.  I haven’t even seen a trailer for it.  It just isn’t on my radar.  But Clooney is pretty much always good, so… I’ll see it at some point.

Going the Distance:

Saw a screening of this last week, and before going in I didn’t pay any attention to the rating of the film.  So, I entered expecting a typical PG-13 romantic comedy that the wife would love and that I would tolerate.  What I got was an R rated hilarious masterpiece on the frustrations of long distance relationships.  There was just so much funny and good about this film that I don’t know where to begin.  Totally worth paying to see, in my opinion.

Machete:

Just two nights ago I went to the Fete Machete down at the Plaza Theater.  It was awesome.  If you liked the Grindhouse double feature from a few years back, you’ll love this.

Dragon*Con 2010: Day One

Dragon*Con

Ahh… Day One of “Oh my, this is early…”  If you are down at the con and looking for me, I’ll be in the Sheraton in the Savannah room most of the day.  There is the MMO Track kick off at 10 am, then the MMO Roundtable at 11:30 am, Funcom 101 at 1 pm, New MMO Showcase at 2:30 pm, and MMO Failures and Flops at 4 pm.  If all goes well, at that point I’m off for the day, but I’ll still be sticking around for The Guild with Vork and Zaboo at 5:30 pm in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton, then back down to Savannah for Breaking into the MMO Industry at 7 pm and Machinima at 8:30 pm.  After that, you’ll probably find me in the lobby of the Marriott or maybe at the Zombie Prom.

As for yesterday, I showed up, got badge, gave blood, and then met with the track staff.  We set up, got given a lecture, and then ate some food.  All is good and right with the world.