Pondering on gaming.

I miss my Wii. I don't know what I would even play if I had access to it, but I miss not having it available to me. There haven't even been any particularly large urges to play video games. Look at me, taking it for granted and now that I don't have it I'm all sorry and wanting to buy it flowers.

To my knowledge, Epic Mickey and Kirby's Epic Yarn are coming out this holiday, so I'll be able to give my Wii some serious lovin' in my down time. I'm looking forward to it. I've been wondering... does it make sense to bring it to Ireland with me? There will be games that I want to play in the coming year, and off the top off my head I can't remember if the Wii is region coded or not, but I could always send money to someone in the States and have them ship me a US version. Decisions decisions. Isn't there supposed to be a Professor Layton for the Wii as well, and of course I can't forget about Zelda.

There's suddenly so much to be excited about. Maybe I should bust out my DSi.

For the plane rides I brought along Picross 3D (which, sadly, I don't enjoy as much as the original Picross), Pokemon SoulSilver and um, something else >.> Ouendan, maybe? I'd have to look, but I am far too lazy to get out of bed.

My WoWing has been extremely infrequent. I think I've played three times since arriving in Ireland. I'm doing a good job of keeping myself social so there hasn't been too much time to delve into Azeroth. Plus, I have the most fun when I'm playing with James and the 8 hour time difference is difficult to maneuver. We'll have to play a lot while I'm back in Washington to make up for it. Although, we did play about two weeks ago and now that our 3x XP is over things felt as though they were moving awfully slow. Heh. That's OK though. He should have his rocket soon and we'll just zoom around the countryside.

I've played the Cataclysm Beta a few times (once I was finally able to get it running). It doesn't run so hot on my machine though. I find this odd, because the non-beta game runs perfectly fine! Wish I knew what the deal was there. My goblin is a classy little lady, by the way. So far I like a lot of the in-game changes. They threw me off a bit at first though. The menus look a lot different.

All gussied up for a party.

Next time I'm logged into my main account I'm going to restructure my skill points. A friend changed them around (for the better, it would seem) on my WoW character app on my iPod and it just seems sensible to make the switch in-game as well. I need more experience with my Hunter.

Since the new Professor Layton comes out this Sunday, I'm considering buying it from the GameStop here. In reality, that is a terrible decision for more than one reason. The main one would be price. The dollar is horrendous against the Euro right now, and I wouldn't get a discount here (I'm pretty sure). The secondary one would be that I believe I have it reserved at my home base GameStop. I could always swap it to another game but that'd be like a cancel and no one wants that.

-MJ

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The infatuation has ended and now it's just stupid.

I think I may be finished with facebook games. I still accept and "return the favor" with regards to Farmville gifts, but I haven't tended to my farm in well over a month. I was enthusiastically playing Frontierville for about two months and now I just feel irritated every time I check on my land. Is it really necessary for five new trees to sprout in a two hour period? Is that really fair? Oh right, they don't want their players to have an semblance of a life.

Every time I check on my frontier lately I heave a deep sigh and think "what's the point? I'm not actually making any sort of progress". Unless I am on that game every hour (which I can't do, nor do I want to do it) then I am literally chopping down the same tree every single day. It's like the Greek king that has to roll the boulder up the hill for eternity. Just depressing.

I read an interesting article on cracked.com the other day about how and why Farmville (and other facebook games like it) is so successful. Reading the secrets unraveled the whole experience for me, which is a good thing. It gave me that extra push to realize I don't even enjoy playing those "games".

They were certainly addictive and fun at first, especially Farmville. You leveled up so easily, it was exciting. Saving money to expand your farm and finally getting that last nail to complete your barn. Now your horses have a place to life! Great. Well, I have reached the cap. My farm is just bursting with livestock and tilled land. It became mundane internet labor to harvest crops and animals. I'd log in after tending to my real life for a few days and I'd see all those freaking pink icons and feel stressed about how long it would take me to click on each horse, chicken, pig, etc. No thank you.

In a way I'm very proud of myself. I have a tendency to create some very serious emotional attachments to inanimate objects, virtual ones included. Those sheep can stay there, ready to be shaved, I don't even care anymore.

So now what do I do with my free internet time? I could be enriching myself, researching and learning. I was doing that a bit the other day, cruising through wikipedia and learning some new things on a basic level. My issue seems to be I don't know what to search for! A wealth of knowledge at my fingertips and I can't even type a word into the search box. Somebody help me! Any topics that are particularly good to read about when you're feeling bored? Or just looking for some mental enrichment?

I have also taken to listening to music on youtube. Had never even thought of this as a viable option before, but turns out it's a good one. I like to read though. Suggestions are welcome.

-MJ

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Computer clean up.

I have today and tomorrow off to do whatever I want, so I'm choosing to do nothing! Well, I'm relaxing, y'know, taking it easy. It's been nice so far.

The biggest item on my "when I have free time" list is getting the freaking Cataclysm beta to work! First attempt, it installed correctly but wouldn't install the patches. Second attempt, my hard drive ran out of space and even after clearing space I couldn't get the Loader to start installing the patches. Third time's a charm, right? That's what I hear. Currently I'm 38% into the patches, with 10 gigs and 5 hours to go. JUST WORK PLEASE.

I've spent a good portion of today begging with my computer to go faster. I ask so much of it. I've been deleting a bunch of things and moving items I don't use regularly to my external drive. A few games went bye-bye, as well as some music. I went through my downloads folder and deleted all dmg and zip files. My last effort to clear space resides with my Aperture library. The file is impossibly large. I don't want to delete anything though because I have spent a lot of time cataloguing and adding metadata. I was seeing if it was possible to move the monstrous file to my external drive and still load it properly when I saw this option in the File menu: delete trash files. Hmm! How had I never noticed this before? I have deleted a lot of things from my library before, lots. According to the warning dialogue box, a little over 11,000 files/previews/versions. Hot damn! I don't know how long it's going to take to remove all of them, it has been going for a while though. So far it has cleared up about 4 gigs of space.

I wish I had some windex, my laptop is dirty.

With the downtime that I have had here I've been thinking a lot about what I would be doing were I at home. I hardly know. I do wish I had my Wii here. What would I play, you might wonder? I don't know, really. Maybe Mario Kart. I've hardly touched my DSi. I brought games that I like to play, it just isn't where my mind is I suppose. I'm going nuts waiting to play the new Professor Layton. What do I do with my spare time? What a question. Here I spend a lot of time staring at the wall and just thinking. It has been interesting.

If I can get this beta to work then I don't have to think too hard to figure out what I'll be doing the rest of the week. I could be playing my regular character but that's most fun when James is on too. With the beta I'll feel powerful and OK with being alone. Ha!

-MJ

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What a pleasant surprise!

I woke up this morning and checked my e-mail. Do you know what I saw?

And I went, "Whaaaaat?" I thought to myself, "Surely that's one of those scam e-mails that Blizzard warns its subscribers about". So I explored the e-mail, reading it carefully and hovering over links, looking for strange words.

Nothing strange so far!

 I finally just opened a separate window and logged into my battle.net account. I figured that if it was real, I'd have information about it in my account!

Awww, yeaaaaaah. Totally legit e-mail! I can't even believe it! I signed up to receive a beta invite believing there was no way in hell I'd actually get one. Now I'm the envy of all*

(by "all" I mean my cousin and my friend)

I'm about to install it and get crackin'! I'm a little confused/concerned though: I made a trial account and then James invited me through the Invite A Friend thing so I had to make a new account. Expired trial account that I never play is WOW(1). Account that I play that has Burning Crusade is WOW(2). The Cataclysm beta is linked to my WOW(1) account that I never use. I'm.... um, worried that this will affect my ability to play. In which case, I will probably freaking cry.

-MJ

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Hopefully this will get it out of my system.

PAX PRIME!

Wednesday, July 14 2010 - 11:42 AM
by: Gabe

I had a dream the other night that we decided to hold PAX in a huge field this year. It seemed like a good idea for some reason but when we got there it was raining and everyone was all wet. Then I looked down and I had no pants. These sorts of dreams tell me that PAX is coming up pretty quick.

You should know that it looks like we will sell out of our 3 day badges sometime between Thursday and Sunday of this week. If you want to grab a couple of these you should head over and do it now.

If you want to attend PAX but would rather work like a dog all three days then you should consider being an enforcer. You can follow this link for the application to join the volunteer army that keeps PAX running so smoothly.

It’s worth mentioning that PAX is not being held in a field this year. It will be at the Washington State convention center and that place has a very nice roof. Also I will be wearing pants.

-Gabe out

-------------------------------

I copied and pasted that from the Penny Arcade news post from yesterday. It made me laugh, but it also gave me a fresh surge of, "AHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO MISS PAX!!" feelings.

I know I'm in Ireland, I am having an amazing time and I don't regret being here at all! AND I am incredibly sad that I'll be missing PAX for the first time ever. I want to get these feelings OUT so I'll stop thinking about it and having people go, "WTF you're in Ireland". 

It's a different kind of fun, and also important in different ways.

I am a gamer and I am a photographer. I am two halves of one great love! If it's not one, then it has to be the other.

I've hardly played any games since I arrived, too busy taking pictures! I played some Picross 3D last night, and a few nights ago I was on WoW with James and Kelly. We had excellent good times. Everyday on the bus I pass a "Social Gaming" place near the city center in Galway. I'd like to go in there and see what's happening. I'd like to make some friends here and video games are a great common thread!

Tomorrow I'll be shopping, so I should make sure to pop in there.

-MJ

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A day of firsts.

When I started this blog I really didn't think it would be so heavily shaped by World of Warcraft. Before I started playing I didn't understand the death grip that it had on happy players. They were always talking about it, always! There was never a shortage of WoW topics, and it could happen at any moment. Penny Arcade had a stint where both Gabe and Tycho were really into WoW and the comics and news posts were frequently WoW centric. They always apologized for it too, insisting that they tried very hard to stay away from it as a comic source. It had them though, sure and fast.

I get it now, even though I can't even begin to explain it. James and I played for four hours tonight. Nystina is now level 28. She's not moving along very quickly in inscription, which makes me sad. I may get on tomorrow and just wander around looking for herbs and try to grind a bit. So far I've avoided logging on without James, our x3 EXP is too awesome to pass up. Herb gathering would be OK though.

So, like the title suggests, a lot of new things happened today. First of all?

My first dungeon experience! Turn out we were totally in the wrong place, seeing as the boss for this area is level 82 or something. We didn't know for a little while though.

My first dungeon death! It wasn't even a good death. I accidentally feel three stories and then got mobbed by some slimes. Pathetic.

My first total and complete WoW jerk! It was an astounding experience. I couldn't believe how rude and arrogant this guy was.

My first PvP experience! We set fire to some Alliance fire thingies for the festival and it activated PvP, which I didn't realize it would do, and I was then slaughtered by guards!

First trans-species experience! I really enjoyed being a crab for a little while.

I'm Exalted somewhere! I love the achievements.

What follows are some other firsts, sort of, but they're from a different day.

I had no idea that I would be able to change my hair cut and color later in the game. Very exciting! I went from having luscious black hair to having a classy red ponytail. I later switched back to black but kept the ponytail.

Look at these hideous red pants. It's like I'm wearing FLAMES! They're good though. I finally, truly understand this comic: great items, horrid fashion.

James and I are working on some pretty far reaching quests, especially for all of this sun festival stuff. We took a zeppelin down to... somewhere, I forget where. I got lost on my way back to the tower and the zeppelin was pulling away right as I ascended. Here I am, staring sadly as my companion flies away against either of our powers. It was really damn funny.

Here's to more quests, achievements, dungeons and levels!

-MJ

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It finally happened!

The stars have finally aligned because Dungeons and Dragons is back in my life! I have wanted to play for over four years, ever since my original campaign was dissolved. My friends have never been interested in playing and even if they were I don't know how to DM. My friend Andrew is in town from California and he plays DnD, he knows that I'd like to get a campaign going. Too bad he lives in LA or else the two of us would be able to get something going. He suggested that while he's here we play as many times as we can, and I am all for that.

On Thursday night we started up a game with his brother and some of his brother's friends. It was fantastic fun! I played my human barbarian, a character that I rolled four years ago after my original character, an elf rouge, was murdered by a giant. I don't play a rouge well at all but I think I'm doing alright with my barbarian so far. We played for a good four and a half hours and I am anxious to play again!

Last night Andrew and I, with our powers combined, convinced Jake to join us for DnD adventures! We didn't play but we did make characters. I rolled one for our friend James just in case he can pop in and play with us. We spent a good two hours just making some characters and I had a pretty good time. Jake has never made it past the character making phase so I'm really excited to actually get to the campaign.

On Thursday night I found myself in a party of adventurers setting toward the forest. A blight had settled onto the forest via the magical water source, causing all flora to wither and all fauna to become deranged and violent.

We trekked toward the center of the forest, aiming for the main tree of life and the magical water's source. As we moved along we encountered an Owlbear, a black bear, a Tree Ent, and an unnamed evil vine being. Our evening wrapped up as we finally approached the main tree and we laid eyes upon the source: goblins!

Dun dun dunnnnn.

Most likely this campaign will not be continued, which is sad, but I'm hopeful that a new one will begin this very evening!

I have more that I want to say but my mind is incredibly scattered right now.

-MJ

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The best medicine.

I feel it would behoove me to not make so many posts in such rapid succession, but I have a lot on my mind. I'm a big fan of talking but I'm not always looking for a conversation. It's a little selfish of me and that's why I'm so happy that I have this blog.

This moment's particular interest is Penny Arcade. Really it's a frequent interest, but right now it's something specific.

Today's 4th Panel PATV episode is full of unstoppable hilarity.

I wish that their 4th Panel episodes were a half an hour in length. Ten minutes is insufficient PA "fill" on Fridays. I enjoy watching the antics at the office and the back-and-forth between Mike and Jerry. Even though I've seen them create comic strips before, both in person at PAX and via PATV, it hasn't ceased entertaining me. The process they go through is very interesting. Especially since I already know what comic they're writing. To hear them say something that I know will be in the comic is just... it's seeing the moment when they've discovered their comic gold.

Now I don't know if it's just for when they're being recorded or if they're always this way, but those two are constantly laughing. One of them is always cracking up at some point and saying things that really get me going as well. I can't not feel good when I'm watching an episode.

-MJ

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It's Burning.

But in a Crusade sort of way.

I was able to install the expansion this evening after a ridiculously long amount of waiting and an absolutely absurd amount of patch updates. I think it went through nine or ten. TEN! I was growing steadily impatient.

My friend and I are finally taking advantage of our linked accounts. Ever since I've started playing he has been... *ahem* absent. I guess he's been busy with "work" or something, but at this point I'm tired of his excuses! He followed through on his promise to play with me tonight if I bought BC. This is one reason the install was stressing me out! He has important crap to take care of tomorrow and he could only be on for an hour.

I suppose I underestimated just how beneficial having linked accounts is. In the span of barely an hour we reached level nine. Nine! It felt good.

I love being a Blood Elf, by the way. They are so awesome and truly do live in a breathtaking magical city.  James and I were on TeamSpeak (love it) and when we ran off toward our first quest I completely spaced on how to attack! Apparently I'm already quite accustomed to my Mage and her magic, so I just stared at the icons trying to figure out which one attacked. I'm happy to report that I did eventually figure it out and I am Arcaning and Bowing mobs like a real pro/newbie Hunter.

This is just to talk about how much I'm enjoying BC so far and how awesome WoW is when playing with a friend on TeamSpeak! Here are some screen shots.

There's my new character Nystina. I'm bad coming up with names.

What a hottie though, m I rite?

James and me teaming up at last!

An impressive building.

My Hunter, tired after a day of hunting, sitting and relaxing at the Inn.

I hope you enjoyed.

-MJ

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Some new things.

I decided that for my trip to Ireland I would need a durable, large capacity, small in physical size travel hard drive. I will be taking a lot of pictures everyday and those need to be stored safely and securely. It would be horrendous if I lost the files because of an external drive that weren't fit for travel. I just purchased a 1TB WesternDigital My Passport SE for Mac. It'll double as additional backup for my regular external hard drive just in case that one breaks. Hard drives make me nervous.

This thing is super tiny and only needs a USB cable. I'll be able to put all sorts of stuff on it! I should construct a padded case for it just in case. I wonder if it'll be OK going through the x-ray machines at the airport? Laptops go through and they're always OK. Hmm. I should look into it. I don't want to put my external drive with my checked bag just in case the airline loses it. That'd be awful.

There's my new hard drive, working hard. You can see the excellent software that comes with it, as well as my secondary monitor!

In other exciting news, I bought the Burning Crusade expansion pack today. I received a text from my friend that said I should get it and we'll make Blood Elves and play through the game together so we can get our temporary bonus exp for having linked accounts. I'm pretty excited about this.

Looking forward to making my Blood Elf Hunter! I'm not really diggin' on my Mage. I don't think I have what it takes to play her. I can't handle being that squishy. Leather armor here I come!

-MJ

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I'm late to the game.

I don't mind though.

What I'm talking about here is The Office!

I have many friends who have been watching it and enjoying it for a few years now. It was recommended to me a while back and I watched the first episode and went, "..erm, hmm. uhhh". Michael made me far too uncomfortable and irritated. I was unable to enjoy myself.

During my last month or so at college (that I am now graduated from!) I started to watch a lot of television. Mostly I was watching TV shows on my Netflix instant watch disc, but then I ran out of good shows so I moved onto movies. Then I ran out of those. So I started watching basic cable: Seinfeld, Fraiser and The Office. These are shows that I've never really watched before but found that I thoroughly enjoyed. To my great delight I discovered that The Office was available for instant watching! *Joy*!

Now that I'm home and relaxing after finishing school, I've been filling up my time with video games and The Office. I especially can't get enough of The Office. Now that I'm past the first few excruciating episodes, and nestled firmly into season 3, I just love the characters! I, like everyone else, have found great happiness and interest in Jim and Pam's "situation". I've seen later episodes, so, y'know, I know, and the suspense is just electrifying.

I'm using this blog space as a way to have conversations about topics that have my interest when I'm by myself and there's no one to talk to.

-MJ

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I have a lot to be excited about.

Currently I'm watching the Sony E3 Conference for Jake and I'm sending him text updates. So far Sony, I am not impressed. Killzone 3, not for me but alright. Gran Turismo 5, people have only been waiting 6 years. A sorcery game. Golf? A long video about 3D? I wish I had something good to report.

Let's just move onto my own excitement recap of Nintendo's Conference.

First and foremost?

Um, fuck yes. I have been reading a whole lot of rumors and speculations and a lot of people really aren't happy with the direction that the series is going in. I'm a fangirl through and through and I guess that means Zelda is almost incapable of disappointing me. I don't really care for Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks but the portable version dislike doesn't really bother me. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword looks promising to me. I was very surprised to discover its graphical truth. A cross between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker? This sounded very strange. I think I'm happy with what the game looks like overall, except for its especially pastel color palette. When I saw my very first screenshot I immediately thought I was looking at a pull from the Kirby level in Smash Bros. I kinda went... "??? hmm". After seeing actual gameplay footage and the game trailer I started to feel better. My biggest issue, I think so far my only issue, is the fact that the life hearts are pink. Pink? Why pink!? Just make them red please.

Skyward Sword will be released in 2011! I'm very excited. I don't think I'm wrong to not be yearning for innovation. I just want a fun game. I want a game I know I'll enjoy. I want familiarity in new areas. I want the characters that I love. I will be very surprised if I'm disappointed by this new Zelda. Oh, one more thing: I think the subtitled "Skyward Sword" is strange and I hope it grows on me.

What else am I excited about?

I didn't realize I was excited about Epic Mickey until very recently. I know nothing about it, but I know that I want it. I love Disney and Mickey Mouse and also rockin' Wii exclusive titles. It certainly looks amazing, graphically speaking, and since I don't care for Kingdom Hearts I'm pumped to have Mickey Mouse back in my gaming life. I can only play Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion so many times. Plus, Epic Mickey has painting in it and I was really really bad at Okami *shame on me* so maybe here's a chance to prove myself?

I knew about the 3DS, but this new information is great!

It doesn't look stupid and that's a relief, plus it comes in blue and black as well. The 3DS looks like it'll be able to do a lot of great things and relatively well. Only the top screen is 3D, apparently touch and 3D aren't compatible in one screen. There should be a pretty good lineup at launch! I look forward to owning one. HOLY WHAT THE EFF!? Paper Mario is going to be on the 3DS? WHAT!? I was just exploring more features to write some more information about the 3DS and I came across this!

Under Nintendo Titles there's Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Paper Mario and more! AHHHH!! I have no idea when the 3DS is supposed to be released but a portable Paper Mario is honestly more than I can handle! *SQUEEEEEEEE!!!*

OK, phew, sorry about that. This wasn't a major announcement and it's freakin' awesome news to me.

Moving on.

I know this is shameful but I didn't enjoy the original Kid Icarus. I really wanted to but it's so damn hard it made me angry. I have it on my Wii if I ever want to give it another go, but I'm hoping that this new Kid Icarus will change things around for me! Another AAA title for the upcoming 3DS.

This really piqued my interest:

I'd like to be a bigger Kirby fan than I actually am. I love the idea of Kirby but I haven't played very many games. I loved Canvas Curse and was kind of ehh on Kirby Super Star Ultra. I have one of the original Kirby games on my Wii but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet. Kirby's Epic Yarn is a new platformer and I love platformers! Plus it looks freaking adorable and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. This new Kirby looks like the beautiful love triangle child of Paper Mario, Yoshi's Story and Kirby Canvas Curse. HEAVEN! It even has a two player feature.

I managed to miss this announcement and then saw it on Nintendo's site:

I am a HUGE Professor Layton fan and you should be too. The first two were a lot of fun and I've been eagerly awaiting the third! I'm glad that the games have proven popular over here in the States, it'd be a shame to miss out on such a gem. Plus the graphics, man! I love the styling. Good on them. I look forward to more mind bending puzzles and a great storyline to follow.

These last ones are exciting but I don't have a lot to say about them.

A kick back to old school with 2D side-scrolling. Awesome? Awesome. Donkey Kong rocks. Maybe my sister will play? She always loved the series.

Here we have an expression of my love.

I am just a sucker for Pokemon and I know I'm not the only one!

So I guess that was my wrap up of Nintendo's E3 conference. I've never done that before. Obviously I just focused on the things that I care about, but hey I'm not getting paid so I can report whatever I want :D

There is so much to be excited about! It's a great time to be a Nintendo fan. There are things happening that don't appeal to me but I know are good, like Metroid Other M, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, Dragon Quest IX, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and so many more titles.

Thank you Nintendo, I love you! I'll always have faith.

-MJ

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Nintendo E3 Conference.

It'd be nice if I could have come up with a more creative or interesting title for this entry but there are just times and places where a straightforward title feels OK.

Moving on!

I'm watching a live feed of the Nintendo conference. Since stepping down as Assistant Manager at GameStop and going back to school (which I have now finished, college graduate over here!), I have obviously fallen rather far out of the loop when it comes to up-to-the-minute news for video games. I used to read magazines and gaming websites a lot more to stay knowledgeable and helpful in the store. I'd cover games that I didn't care about but I don't feel compelled to do that anymore.

Either way, watching the feed for this conference has been a lot of fun so far! I haven't felt so in the know in quite a while.

Firstly, Zelda. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, as it were. I don't know how I feel about this title. It feels bland and out of left field. It'll probably grow on me but for now I don't like it. But really the title has very little merit on gameplay or enjoyment so I'll do my best to ignore it.

The first thing that really caught my eye was reading that it has a cel shaded quality to it. I love cel shading! I loved the graphics in Wind Waker. However! These graphics were described as a good mix between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Intriguing, no? I can't wait to see gameplay footage or a trailer or SOMETHING! I need to see this graphical mash up myself.

There was no update or information on story, which is disappointing. The game won't be out until next year, which is no real surprise. I'm excited about the one to one swordplay with Wii Motion Plus. I wonder if I'll suck at it? I like that the nunchuck is used as a shield. My arm will probably get tired! Accidental exercise is the best kind.

So far the other things in the feed that have caught my eye are Goldeneye and Epic Mickey. I'm terrible at Goldeneye but I was able to have fun with it despite that fact. Jake seems pretty excited so I'm thinking we may pick it up. I hope there's co-op, I'm so terrible at shooters and I'm also a bad sport so I know I'll just get pissed at him if we play against one another.

I don't know what happened to my GameInformer that had Epic Mickey on the front but I do recall that I never actually had the chance to read about it. I wasn't all that interested at first but the more news that has trickled in the more interested I've become. I love Mickey Mouse! It has painting features! And the graphics are really nice! And last I heard it's Wii exclusive! I think it's nice that Nintendo will be getting an exclusive that's not Mario-centric. I have to defend my platform!

Whoa whoa, a new Kirby game and he's made of yarn? That sounds neat! I don't know what other information I even need! I loved Canvas Curse so much! I was so close to beating it too. I almost never finish games. I couldn't complete the second to last level. The anger just kept rising in me so I finally stopped playing. What a quitter. Hopefully this Kirby will be seen through to the end! Coming to the Wii this fall.

I suppose I'll wrap this up for now. Last year was incredibly dry in terms of games I wanted to play. I'm really excited to see so many titles that I want to play!

-MJ

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I guess this is about eReaders.

This comic really makes me laugh. I don't have a Kindle or a Nook or any other sort of eReader. I don't have anything against them and even though I love electronic devices I don't have any desire to own one. My mom, sister and grandma all love theirs. My mom has asked me if I want one and my answer is always, "Eh" accompanied by a shrug. I find it odd that I'm not at all interested in having one. I think I'd prefer to have the actual book. I like the physical objects. The same goes for music and movies. I'd rather buy the DVD and the CD. Although recently I've seemed to throw my physical CD rule out the window; I buy all of my new music off of iTunes. I am definitely an instant gratification person. I wonder if this will ever change regarding books for me?

I kind of derailed myself here.

When I first heard about the Kindle my aunt was telling my family and me about it. Apparently she knows/knew one of the people that belonged to the development team. He was explaining to her that it had real book-like features including an animated page turning visual. She retorted that real books did that too and proceeded to flip the page of a book that she had nearby.

That story still makes me giggle, especially after reading this comic and knowing how popular eReaders are.

There's no denying the convenience of so many books in one slim package. Especially for traveling! Although I really don't like the idea of my book being "off" and therefore impossible to read. I take serious issue with that. Plus I'm like my grandma, the scent of books is a real plus.

-MJ

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Simply for my own reference.

Although anyone else is free to take advantage of it as well.

Dungeons and Dragons has really been on my mind a lot lately. There are times of the day when I'm foaming at the mouth thinking about being a part of a regular campaign. I've reached January of 2009 in the Penny Arcade archives, and at this point Gabe (or Mike, as it were) is starting up his own campaign for the very first time. I'm itchy thinking about it.

I came across this post of his and it contains such good information that I wanted to keep it nearby just in case. I thought about doing a screenshot, or perhaps copying the words into a text document and keeping it on my hard drive. But then, I thought to myself, why not put it on my blog and label it for easy reference? That way it's stored on the great and vast internet for me and so many others to enjoy.

Without further ado, I give you Gabe's advice on starting a DnD campaign.

-MJ

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mailbag

Wednesday, January 7 2009 - 10:34 AM
by: Gabe

I'm just going to go ahead and answer a couple questions that are coming up a lot in my email.   

Q: What are the needed tools to manning your own D&D campaign?

A: At the most basic level I think all you really need is a set of the books - The Dungeon Master's Guide, The Player's Handbook, and the Monster Manual. These can be purchased as a set at most book stores. You'll also need some dice and a group of friends willing to give it a try. A DM screen is also nice. Before I played the game I just assumed the screen was there to hide the DM's actions from the players. This is true but it's also a giant cheat sheet. On the DM's side it's packed full of stuff like status effects, definitions of various rules and terms, common actions the party might take and guides for how to respond. I gotta say as a first time DM this screen was a huge help

In addition to the books I also picked up this starter kit and found it very helpful. It has some Dungeon Tiles for building your map, dice, hero and monster tokens, as well as a simplified version of the DMG(Dungeon Master's Guide). The nice thing about this set is that it includes a level 1 adventure all pretty much done for you. In fact I fully intended to just run it as is for my first game but once I started getting into the setting and learning about the world I couldn't help but add in my own story ideas. 

If everyone is new to the game I recommend having each of your players pick up their own copy of the Player's Handbook. They can use it to choose a character race and class as well as familiarize themselves with the rules of the game. A lot of it won't make much sense until you're all actually at the table rolling dice but it helps to at least have an idea of what to expect. 

I think that's a good place to start. I can tell you some other stuff I picked up that isn't really necessary but I think helped a lot. 

-Pencils and paper for everyone. It sounds silly but you do a lot of writing on your character sheet and they will probably also want to take some notes about the adventure. Having pencils and paper on hand is a good idea. 

-3x5 cards. This is a trick I picked up after watching Chris Perkins DM our games for WOTC. You write the name of each of your players on a 3x5 card. You do the same for your monsters and then when everyone rolls for initiative you write those numbers on their respective cards. Then it's just a matter of putting the cards in the right order and you have an easy way of keeping track of whose turn it is. The cards are also a great place to track your monster's HP and any marks or status effects. 

-Extra dice. You roll a lot of dice in this game and having a little bowl of extras for people who forgot theirs or don't have any is convenient. 

Something I decided to do on my own was have the party choose a MVPC (most valuable player character) at the end of the session. I think giving out some fancy dice is a cool treat and they're pretty inexpensive. Obviously this isn't necessary but I thought it was fun and It was a good opportunity for them to sort of recap the adventure and talk about all the cool stuff everyone did. 

The Dungeon Master Guide is really a great resource. It will give you all kinds of ideas about what you might want to pick up for your game. It even goes into detail about the environment you play in and gives great tips on getting your friends into the spirit. Where the Player's Handbook is really about rules, the DMG is more about the philosophy of be a Dungeon Master and the mechanics of creating a world for your friends to play in. I was really impressed with it. 

Q:Is there any chance you could record your adventures as DM?

A: I'm flattered that you guys would like to listen in on these, but this game I'm running is just me and a group of my friends. The podcasts we do for WOTC are separate and you'll be getting more of those soon. Recording these would ad a level of stress to the game for my friends and that's not something I want to do. I'm happy to keep you guys posted here on the site, and I'll be sure and relate anything I think was especially cool. 

-Gabe out

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