Currently a WIP because I thought of this on my bus ride into work today. I like white elephant gift exchanges, but I always feel like there isn't enough interaction and people who have later numbers in the gift opening process have a huge advantage. So here's my attempt at making a more fun gift giving exchange.
If you try this out, please comment below and let me know how it went. I'm open to any comments or suggestions!
Barter Elephant Rules:
1. Draw numbers.
2. Open wrapped presents in order.
3. NO STEALING.
4. After everyone has opened a present, Barter Cocktail Time begins.
5. For the next half an hour, everyone attempts to paperclip < house their way to their desired item and/or negotiate additional perks that would be exchanged in order to sweeten the deal.
6. Gifts are redistributed at the end of the Barter Cocktail Time depending on if any deals were successfully made.
Edit: Changed the name from Barter HolidayTown to Barter Elephants.
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
December 21, 2015
October 5, 2015
XOXO 2015 - The Best Conference I've Ever Been To
When I first heard about the XOXO Festival, it was described with a mysterious and mystical air, an elusive and exclusive technology conference in Portland. You had to fill out a form to get the opportunity to go and it boasted speakers AND attendees that were movers and shakers in the tech world. I imagined it was like a turnkey Burning Man camp.
I've had the good fortune of attending Burning Man twice, in 2012 and 2014, so I figured, hell, why not give it a shot, I'm a pretty diverse and interesting individual, maybe I have a shot at buying tickets in the lottery. And it was the best four days I've spent surrounded by strangers with a schedule of activities. Yes, even better than tour-guided vacations.
Thursday
The very first night, I met Sophie & Jenni from New Zealand and pretty much spent some part of every day of XOXO hanging out with them. They were fun, laid back, and it was easy to feel comfortable around them.
While wandering around looking at the VR games, we saw Brian Fetter and his sister Laura Fetter, who were repping shirts from Brian's game Keep Talking And No One Explodes and looking for people to demo the game. Luckily, we saw them right before they set up shop and pretty much hung out with them for the next hour. Pat Kemp (my partner) and Brian talked video game shop, while Laura and I had a leisurely conversation about all sorts of things and demoed the game to the couple of curious people that wandered past.
Friday
Was a blur of social events, meeting people, and DAN DEACON.
Ground Kontrol was free to play, so I got to play some more Killer Queen. I much prefer the setup at the Cards Against Humanity office in Chicago because it allows for more smack talk as well as sportsmanship.
And then I got to experience the joyous wonder that is Dan Deacon. This statement from Dan Deacon's Wikipedia page sums up, but in no way accurately describes, the experience of attending a Dan Deacon concert:
Saturday
The start of two days crammed full of inspiring and heart-provoking talks that gave glimpses into the struggles and victories of people from all corners of the creative technology ecosystem. On Saturday I learned "You can better show a thing than explain it."
I was impressed by the diversity of the speakers as well as the diversity of the conference attendees. Apparently, 47% of the attendees were women.
I was extremely fortunate to stumble upon and experience &maybetheywontkillyou, in which you role-play as a black teenager going to the store. It was made by Akira Thompson and I really enjoyed chatting with him afterwards. It's been one of main things I bring up when talking to people about XOXO as an example of an important and necessary creative outreach that should be supported and that space should be made for.
I had a delicious dinner with Samantha Kalman and we talked about the future of Invisible Arcade, an event that I've been helping her put on in Seattle.
Sunday
Started with the best breakfast burrito I have ever had. Even better, while we were waiting for it from the Fried Egg, I'm in Love food truck conveniently located by our AirBnB, we got to chat with Lucy Bellwood, a delightful individual who did all of the live sketches of the XOXO talks.
On Sunday I learned "Our designs are value systems."
I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with a small group that included Andrew Ferguson, Tony Zhou, Spike Trotman, and Nicky Case, all of whom were fun and interesting to talk to. At one point, we had an entire table discussion on the difficult question of whether or not to have kids. From the conversation, Tony recommended that I watch (in order) Rosemary's Baby, The Babadook, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. I watched the first two just yesterday, back to back and am waiting for the third from the library. So far, I'm no less fearful of having kids, but the good news is that I'm no more fearful of having kids than before either.
At the Electric Objects Salon, one of its curators, Darius Kazemi, gave a tour of the exhibit, which was fascinating, especially because I had gone through the exhibit on my own earlier and missed so so much of the backstories behind each piece. Also, I love tours.
Finally, I spent much of the rest of the night, and a couple of hours on Monday, talking to Rachel Nabors and had her draw on my XOXO badge.
In Conclusion...
XOXO to me was a four day conversation that I had about my place in the world and how I can make it better. I was deeply inspired and humbled by all of the authentic and engaged discussions that I had with everyone that I met, not just those that I mentioned here. If you ever get a chance to go, I would challenge you to take every opportunity to talk with someone because at its core, XOXO is about people.
I've had the good fortune of attending Burning Man twice, in 2012 and 2014, so I figured, hell, why not give it a shot, I'm a pretty diverse and interesting individual, maybe I have a shot at buying tickets in the lottery. And it was the best four days I've spent surrounded by strangers with a schedule of activities. Yes, even better than tour-guided vacations.
Thursday
The very first night, I met Sophie & Jenni from New Zealand and pretty much spent some part of every day of XOXO hanging out with them. They were fun, laid back, and it was easy to feel comfortable around them.
While wandering around looking at the VR games, we saw Brian Fetter and his sister Laura Fetter, who were repping shirts from Brian's game Keep Talking And No One Explodes and looking for people to demo the game. Luckily, we saw them right before they set up shop and pretty much hung out with them for the next hour. Pat Kemp (my partner) and Brian talked video game shop, while Laura and I had a leisurely conversation about all sorts of things and demoed the game to the couple of curious people that wandered past.
Friday
Was a blur of social events, meeting people, and DAN DEACON.
Ground Kontrol was free to play, so I got to play some more Killer Queen. I much prefer the setup at the Cards Against Humanity office in Chicago because it allows for more smack talk as well as sportsmanship.
And then I got to experience the joyous wonder that is Dan Deacon. This statement from Dan Deacon's Wikipedia page sums up, but in no way accurately describes, the experience of attending a Dan Deacon concert:
Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the performance.As I've been telling people, it was like a giant ice breaker performance art with the two hundred or so attendees of the concert. Afterwards, I was exhilarated and exhausted, my hands hurt, and I couldn't wait to wash my hands extremely thoroughly. I absolutely love performance art and being able to interact authentically with strangers and feel part of a whole. I also had the pleasure of giving Dan Deacon a high-five. I didn't want him to feel left out of the beautiful thing he created.
Saturday
The start of two days crammed full of inspiring and heart-provoking talks that gave glimpses into the struggles and victories of people from all corners of the creative technology ecosystem. On Saturday I learned "You can better show a thing than explain it."
I was impressed by the diversity of the speakers as well as the diversity of the conference attendees. Apparently, 47% of the attendees were women.
I was extremely fortunate to stumble upon and experience &maybetheywontkillyou, in which you role-play as a black teenager going to the store. It was made by Akira Thompson and I really enjoyed chatting with him afterwards. It's been one of main things I bring up when talking to people about XOXO as an example of an important and necessary creative outreach that should be supported and that space should be made for.
I had a delicious dinner with Samantha Kalman and we talked about the future of Invisible Arcade, an event that I've been helping her put on in Seattle.
Sunday
Started with the best breakfast burrito I have ever had. Even better, while we were waiting for it from the Fried Egg, I'm in Love food truck conveniently located by our AirBnB, we got to chat with Lucy Bellwood, a delightful individual who did all of the live sketches of the XOXO talks.
On Sunday I learned "Our designs are value systems."
I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with a small group that included Andrew Ferguson, Tony Zhou, Spike Trotman, and Nicky Case, all of whom were fun and interesting to talk to. At one point, we had an entire table discussion on the difficult question of whether or not to have kids. From the conversation, Tony recommended that I watch (in order) Rosemary's Baby, The Babadook, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. I watched the first two just yesterday, back to back and am waiting for the third from the library. So far, I'm no less fearful of having kids, but the good news is that I'm no more fearful of having kids than before either.
At the Electric Objects Salon, one of its curators, Darius Kazemi, gave a tour of the exhibit, which was fascinating, especially because I had gone through the exhibit on my own earlier and missed so so much of the backstories behind each piece. Also, I love tours.
Finally, I spent much of the rest of the night, and a couple of hours on Monday, talking to Rachel Nabors and had her draw on my XOXO badge.
In Conclusion...
XOXO to me was a four day conversation that I had about my place in the world and how I can make it better. I was deeply inspired and humbled by all of the authentic and engaged discussions that I had with everyone that I met, not just those that I mentioned here. If you ever get a chance to go, I would challenge you to take every opportunity to talk with someone because at its core, XOXO is about people.
March 9, 2014
Hackfinder - Pathfinder with a Story Gaming Emphasis
This was my first experience with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Previously, I played 4E D&D for 4 1/2 years. Since we played "Hackfinder", a version of Pathfinder that Jerome Virnich created that involves more roleplaying scenes with NPCs, I didn't really learn that much about the difference between Pathfinder vs D&D. Two of the players were Pathfinder veterans and they work for Goblinworks and Pat (who's also in the D&D Next game) had played Hackfinder before.
Before we launched into it, we each created several NPCs that ranged from Timmy, Velt's 10 year old son, various Guild heads, Frey, a cult leader, Yana, a brothel mistress, and Simeon, a snake oil salesman. Much of the information gathering was accomplished by having scenes with NPCs that were played by anyone who wasn't in the scene as a PC.
During two of the smaller battles, half of us who weren't in the battle played the NPCs that they were fighting. It was fun to be involved in the scene and we weren't so invested in our PCs that we felt like we were being traitors. However, for me, who had a bit of hard time reading the NPC sheet stats and how to do battles, it was somewhat of a challenge.
Jerome Virnich - GM
Me - Velt Render, male, pampered rich Halfling who ran away from the Mainland, learned how to be a rogue by paying for lessons.
Pat - Lok, female, born in the lost colony settlement, grew up feral, works as hired muscle.
Stephen - Doc Splody, male, traveled around the world to learn more about alchemy.
Tork - Chetan, male, 3rd incarnation, works as bookkeeper for the shop.
The settlement of Ardis was founded by people who were escaping the mainland for religious reasons, entrepreneurs looking to profit from exporting the various goods of the area, or just people who were looking to make a new start. The surrounding forest was extremely dangerous, full of large kaiju and a mysterious madness that seemed to befall anyone who spent too much time in it. The four guilds that make up the settlement are:
Velt, Lok, Doc Splody, and Chetan all work for the Alchemist Guild at Rainbow Remedies. Velt gathered information, Lok was the muscle, Doc Splody was the shop owner, and Chetan kept the books.
Several rumors had been floating around and as is their wont, everyone congregates at the local tavern to suss out the truth from the falsehoods. The most tantalizing rumor, that the Vice Guild was throwing a big party, turned out to be the rumor that was verifiable, and everyone manages to secure entry into the exclusive event.
At the party, the Vice Guild unveils their newest product, moss ale. Moss, gathered from within the forest, is one of the drugs used within the settlement and is a popular export. Simeon, the snake oil salesman, claims to be able to cultivate the moss to make mass production feasible. The moss ale is delicious, light, and produces ecstatic euphoria. Several people have problems that they need help with and in return, they mention interesting tidbits of info.
After the party, the Vice Guild floods the market with moss ale. However, it seems like people are starting to act strangely, seeing things where there is nothing. And this is affecting even those who haven't touched any moss ale. Mother Comfort, a healer/wise woman of the Low District, fears for her district and wants the moss growing operation to be stopped. Meanwhile, Frey, leader of the Cult of the Dark Tapestry, has been trying to recruit Lok the whole time and wants them not to interfere with the moss growing. Timmy, Velt's son, comes down with a touch of the madness and Velt and Doc Splody decide to go to the Low District to find Mother Comfort, who might be able to cure Timmy. Lok and Chetan stay behind at Rainbow Remedies to look after the shop and Timmy.
When Velt and Doc Splody arrive in the Low District, they find it ablaze. They manage to defeat fire elementals and chase off a Bloodfire sorcerer though Velt was sadly unprepared for a fight with fire and had to resort to using his slingshot with apples scrounged from a nearby market stall. "How do you like them apples?" might have been said.
Back at the shop, Lok and Chetan successfully defend against looters though the percentage of spiders increased exponentially. When Lucritia, head of the Alchemist Guild, hears about the fire, she's convinced it's the work of the Vice Guild. Velt, Lok, Chetan, and Doc Splody are dispatched to the rumored mercenary camp to investigate and put an end to their whole operation. The camp is a four day march away.
Along the way, they run into a group of fungal apes and fungal badgers, all seemingly acting weirdly slow and breathing madness spores all up in their faces. They make it to the Dark Shrine without any further mishaps. Six obelisks make up the shrine and the moss growing and harvesting is happening in the middle. The mercs look like they've been constantly fighting off the kaiju. As if on cue, a fungal T-Rex crashes through the forest and starts stomping and eating the mercs. Everyone but Lok, feral as she is, thinks it's a good idea to watch the chaos from their safe vantage point, but Lok immediately climbs down and joins in on the fight. It's a little painful, but they manage to take everyone out, including the T-Rex, who is a bit clumsy and has a hard time keeping its balance due to some conveniently placed grease by Chetan. Yeah, we had a T-Rex on its back, flailing around for a while.
Unfortunately, almost immediately after the T-Rex is finished off, there's a low rumble from the middle of the Dark Shrine and a fungal Frey bursts out. Looks like she's some sort of extraplanar queen now and starts doing some dark evil eldrich fungal zombie shit on the dead mercs.
Everyone is low on the healths, except for Lok, who manages to get mind controlled by Frey and starts going to town on her allies. Chetan is taken out. Doc Splody spends most of the time on the verge of dying while being tentacle hugged by Frey. He's double-fisting potions and throwing all sorts of defoliant, and whatever else he has in the bag at the fungus that's penetrating his skin. Velt scampers around, sling-shotting whenever possible, and manages to turn invisible at last minute, the edges of blacking out creeping in his vision. Luckily, this breaks Lok's mind-controlled mission of attacking her allies and with a rage that would quell the sternest of hearts, she ends Frey with a slash of her great sword.
As the moss is systematically destroyed, the madness recedes from the minds of the townsfolk. It takes some time for the settlement to fully recover, and everyone is more wary of the moss from then on, but with the Cult of the Dark Tapestry destroyed, it seems like the world is safe for the moment.
Before we launched into it, we each created several NPCs that ranged from Timmy, Velt's 10 year old son, various Guild heads, Frey, a cult leader, Yana, a brothel mistress, and Simeon, a snake oil salesman. Much of the information gathering was accomplished by having scenes with NPCs that were played by anyone who wasn't in the scene as a PC.
During two of the smaller battles, half of us who weren't in the battle played the NPCs that they were fighting. It was fun to be involved in the scene and we weren't so invested in our PCs that we felt like we were being traitors. However, for me, who had a bit of hard time reading the NPC sheet stats and how to do battles, it was somewhat of a challenge.
Jerome Virnich - GM
Me - Velt Render, male, pampered rich Halfling who ran away from the Mainland, learned how to be a rogue by paying for lessons.
Pat - Lok, female, born in the lost colony settlement, grew up feral, works as hired muscle.
Stephen - Doc Splody, male, traveled around the world to learn more about alchemy.
Tork - Chetan, male, 3rd incarnation, works as bookkeeper for the shop.
The settlement of Ardis was founded by people who were escaping the mainland for religious reasons, entrepreneurs looking to profit from exporting the various goods of the area, or just people who were looking to make a new start. The surrounding forest was extremely dangerous, full of large kaiju and a mysterious madness that seemed to befall anyone who spent too much time in it. The four guilds that make up the settlement are:
- the Vice Guild, who maintain the black market and the hired muscle,
- the Alchemist Guild, who supply the drugs, other remedies, and explosives,
- the Fish Mongers Guild, who treat the ocean and nearby river as their personal playground, keeping the settlement supplied in fish and the fish extract needed to make a popular drug.
- the Blacksmith Guild, who make the weapons and build the structures that make up the settlement.
- the Quarriers Guild, who manage the quarries.
Rainbow Remedies Shop Sign
Image created by Stephen Cheney
Several rumors had been floating around and as is their wont, everyone congregates at the local tavern to suss out the truth from the falsehoods. The most tantalizing rumor, that the Vice Guild was throwing a big party, turned out to be the rumor that was verifiable, and everyone manages to secure entry into the exclusive event.
At the party, the Vice Guild unveils their newest product, moss ale. Moss, gathered from within the forest, is one of the drugs used within the settlement and is a popular export. Simeon, the snake oil salesman, claims to be able to cultivate the moss to make mass production feasible. The moss ale is delicious, light, and produces ecstatic euphoria. Several people have problems that they need help with and in return, they mention interesting tidbits of info.
- Catherine, the caterer, needs to impress as many people as possible with the food because her business is not doing well. Unfortunately, she stained the front of her dress. Magic is used to "clean" her dress for a few hours and she mentions that she saw a fire burning on the surface of the water some ways down the shore.
- Lucretia, head of the Alchemist Guild, wants to know which consortium one of the merchants is from. Lok intimidates him into telling her and Doc Splody confirms it by recognizing the merchant's monocle. She told them that she heard that the Vice Guild set up a camp deep in the woods, at the outskirts of the abandoned settlement.
- Yana, the brothel mistress and Velt's date at the party, wants to hook up with one of the merchants. Velt begrudgingly helps her make an introduction, and she mentions that one of her girls was hired by a merchant and might be investing lots of money into the Vice Guild if the moss ale pans out.
- Fal, a hired muscle, wants to steal a barrel of the moss ale to sell it. Lok unwittingly helps him but in the morning, he's found floating in the port. Before his untimely death, he tells her that one of the ships that sailed into the settlement for the party was filled with a small mercenary company of rangers and survivalists that disembarked down the coast and were equipped for a long stay in the woods.
- Anton, friends with Velt and head of the Vice Guild's muscle, needs help to kill his brother, who is the head of the mercenary company, Velt falsely promises to help him. Anton tells Velt that the Vice Guild wants to expand their operation in the settlement and are going to level the Low Quarter (the slums of the settlement) for their land.
- Simeon, the snake oil salesman, is being praised for his method of cultivating the moss but he wants help with a get-rich-quick scheme. He tells them that he just gave the Vice Guild a plant growth potion and he has no idea how they're cultivating the moss.
After the party, the Vice Guild floods the market with moss ale. However, it seems like people are starting to act strangely, seeing things where there is nothing. And this is affecting even those who haven't touched any moss ale. Mother Comfort, a healer/wise woman of the Low District, fears for her district and wants the moss growing operation to be stopped. Meanwhile, Frey, leader of the Cult of the Dark Tapestry, has been trying to recruit Lok the whole time and wants them not to interfere with the moss growing. Timmy, Velt's son, comes down with a touch of the madness and Velt and Doc Splody decide to go to the Low District to find Mother Comfort, who might be able to cure Timmy. Lok and Chetan stay behind at Rainbow Remedies to look after the shop and Timmy.
When Velt and Doc Splody arrive in the Low District, they find it ablaze. They manage to defeat fire elementals and chase off a Bloodfire sorcerer though Velt was sadly unprepared for a fight with fire and had to resort to using his slingshot with apples scrounged from a nearby market stall. "How do you like them apples?" might have been said.
Back at the shop, Lok and Chetan successfully defend against looters though the percentage of spiders increased exponentially. When Lucritia, head of the Alchemist Guild, hears about the fire, she's convinced it's the work of the Vice Guild. Velt, Lok, Chetan, and Doc Splody are dispatched to the rumored mercenary camp to investigate and put an end to their whole operation. The camp is a four day march away.
Along the way, they run into a group of fungal apes and fungal badgers, all seemingly acting weirdly slow and breathing madness spores all up in their faces. They make it to the Dark Shrine without any further mishaps. Six obelisks make up the shrine and the moss growing and harvesting is happening in the middle. The mercs look like they've been constantly fighting off the kaiju. As if on cue, a fungal T-Rex crashes through the forest and starts stomping and eating the mercs. Everyone but Lok, feral as she is, thinks it's a good idea to watch the chaos from their safe vantage point, but Lok immediately climbs down and joins in on the fight. It's a little painful, but they manage to take everyone out, including the T-Rex, who is a bit clumsy and has a hard time keeping its balance due to some conveniently placed grease by Chetan. Yeah, we had a T-Rex on its back, flailing around for a while.
Unfortunately, almost immediately after the T-Rex is finished off, there's a low rumble from the middle of the Dark Shrine and a fungal Frey bursts out. Looks like she's some sort of extraplanar queen now and starts doing some dark evil eldrich fungal zombie shit on the dead mercs.
Everyone is low on the healths, except for Lok, who manages to get mind controlled by Frey and starts going to town on her allies. Chetan is taken out. Doc Splody spends most of the time on the verge of dying while being tentacle hugged by Frey. He's double-fisting potions and throwing all sorts of defoliant, and whatever else he has in the bag at the fungus that's penetrating his skin. Velt scampers around, sling-shotting whenever possible, and manages to turn invisible at last minute, the edges of blacking out creeping in his vision. Luckily, this breaks Lok's mind-controlled mission of attacking her allies and with a rage that would quell the sternest of hearts, she ends Frey with a slash of her great sword.
As the moss is systematically destroyed, the madness recedes from the minds of the townsfolk. It takes some time for the settlement to fully recover, and everyone is more wary of the moss from then on, but with the Cult of the Dark Tapestry destroyed, it seems like the world is safe for the moment.
September 21, 2011
Arcane Gate FTW!
A precursor to this post:
My friends and I have been playing D&D with the same characters since 4th Edition came out, June 2008. We're lvl 19 now after about a year of playing every Wednesday and Sunday, and these last two years of playing on just Sundays. I've written a few posts on campaigns that we've run, notably on Obsidian Portal (The Fallen Leaves of Mithrendain & The Crafters of Lon). It was fun, but also somewhat tedious depending on how much I enjoyed the session. I'm taking it up again, using this space for posts. I usually avoid using my friends' names in blog posts except for Zach, for privacy, so I'll be referring to everyone by initial.
We are in a party called The Gray Hand, our characters:
The Gray Hand starts off by finding a secret passageway that has a shadow ward at the entrance. Since none of them are shadows or have anything shadow-based, they pass through with no problems. The room ahead is inhabited by two wizard-y scholars of low-importance, though they're nice enough and offer to give information about the tower in exchange for dispelling the shadow ward. Malak takes some valuable books and Inadia finds two rituals and the components that go along with them. The ward is dispatched readily by Inadia's Arcane superiority and Ctharyan's nimble fingers.
The scholars reveal that there is a demon in heart of the tower and that the purple flames around the tower are a means of transportation to and from the Forgotten Realms. They also notice Kalavich's "hat" and how it's not super good for him and have a nice little catch-up chat with Inadia's Skull of Sartine.
The Gray Hand offers one of their tower's rooms (once it's reclaimed and put back in Sigil) to the scholars before continuing down the hallway. The door to the next room is cracked open and they see an epic wresting match between a huge brute and a demon. The door going out of the room is also spied and the party decides to quietly sneak through the room using Arcane Gate.
It goes smoothly and Malak puts a Nail of Sealing into the door to buy the party some time to make their getaway. Inadia uses her nature skill and Mo-Mo to create dust to hide their tracks and they sneak into an empty room and wait for the monsters to go by. Once they emerge and continue on their way, they find gruesome remnants of the two huge brutes. The brutes appear to have been in the way of a large fire snake. Buoyed by the likelihood that all enemies in front of them have met a similar fate, the party picks up the pace, though always checking around corners to avoid meeting the fire snake face to face.
***
I liked that we used our brains instead of brawns for this encounter, but I think a small fight would have still been nice. Honestly, while I like being rewarded for coming up with smart ideas, sometimes it's fun to have things go horribly wrong. It would have been just as if not more amusing if they had already heard us coming and staged a wresting match or if the door had been locked. Challenge is good, tough decisions are memorable, and it's always about being a hero. Whether or not you're an effective hero is up to the dice.
My friends and I have been playing D&D with the same characters since 4th Edition came out, June 2008. We're lvl 19 now after about a year of playing every Wednesday and Sunday, and these last two years of playing on just Sundays. I've written a few posts on campaigns that we've run, notably on Obsidian Portal (The Fallen Leaves of Mithrendain & The Crafters of Lon). It was fun, but also somewhat tedious depending on how much I enjoyed the session. I'm taking it up again, using this space for posts. I usually avoid using my friends' names in blog posts except for Zach, for privacy, so I'll be referring to everyone by initial.
We are in a party called The Gray Hand, our characters:
- Inadia, half-elf wizard played by F (me)
- Vealkarion, elf ranger played by Z (Zach)
- Malak, human warlord played by P
- Ctharyan, eladrin rogue played by A
- Kalavich, dwarf priest played by S
- Vygcarraash, dragonborn paladin played by J (currently the DM, so this char is not around)
Apparently player feedback would also be beneficial, though it'll probably be pretty one-sided with just me giving commentary. So approximately once a week, I'll be writing up what happened and then giving some thoughts. Also I have a terrible memory so if anyone cares enough when I make mistakes, please feel free to correct said mistakes in the comments.
***
The Gray Hand starts off by finding a secret passageway that has a shadow ward at the entrance. Since none of them are shadows or have anything shadow-based, they pass through with no problems. The room ahead is inhabited by two wizard-y scholars of low-importance, though they're nice enough and offer to give information about the tower in exchange for dispelling the shadow ward. Malak takes some valuable books and Inadia finds two rituals and the components that go along with them. The ward is dispatched readily by Inadia's Arcane superiority and Ctharyan's nimble fingers.
The scholars reveal that there is a demon in heart of the tower and that the purple flames around the tower are a means of transportation to and from the Forgotten Realms. They also notice Kalavich's "hat" and how it's not super good for him and have a nice little catch-up chat with Inadia's Skull of Sartine.
The Gray Hand offers one of their tower's rooms (once it's reclaimed and put back in Sigil) to the scholars before continuing down the hallway. The door to the next room is cracked open and they see an epic wresting match between a huge brute and a demon. The door going out of the room is also spied and the party decides to quietly sneak through the room using Arcane Gate.
It goes smoothly and Malak puts a Nail of Sealing into the door to buy the party some time to make their getaway. Inadia uses her nature skill and Mo-Mo to create dust to hide their tracks and they sneak into an empty room and wait for the monsters to go by. Once they emerge and continue on their way, they find gruesome remnants of the two huge brutes. The brutes appear to have been in the way of a large fire snake. Buoyed by the likelihood that all enemies in front of them have met a similar fate, the party picks up the pace, though always checking around corners to avoid meeting the fire snake face to face.
***
I liked that we used our brains instead of brawns for this encounter, but I think a small fight would have still been nice. Honestly, while I like being rewarded for coming up with smart ideas, sometimes it's fun to have things go horribly wrong. It would have been just as if not more amusing if they had already heard us coming and staged a wresting match or if the door had been locked. Challenge is good, tough decisions are memorable, and it's always about being a hero. Whether or not you're an effective hero is up to the dice.
September 13, 2011
PAX 2011
Another year, another PAX Prime.
This was the most relaxed PAX I've ever had. I've finally boiled down PAX to what really matters: Friends & Indie Games.
We actually all (minus 1) sat down together at the Tap House Grill and had lunch together. Right in the middle of the day, during normal lunch hours, not to mention the exhibition hall being open. And the food was really good. And we had beers. Like adults. It was a real defining moment: we'd all done this song and dance before and there was no reason we needed to run around frantically, subsisting on junk food and being sleep-deprived.
I didn't even put on makeup for two of the days. Previous PAXes were focused on getting free T-shirts, the majority of which I never wear and fit me poorly, silly swag which sits untouched in bags, and playing up my role of being a hot gamer chick.
I'm hoping that this year's epiphany flows over to my IRL existence and that I can try to cut out some of the things that I used to think were important, but that I don't really need. Boil it down to the things that really matter. And what does really matter? Seems like sleep matters less and less because it's the only way I can hang out with more people.
Writing matters to me. I read somewhere that you have to get to a point where you can't NOT write, when not writing is like dying. I've always been focused on writing something amazing, and that's where it ends. But writing is one of the things that I do that I am genuinely proud of. I re-read good pieces and marvel that it was wrought by my hands and despair that I'll never reach that potential again.
I refuse to believe that I reached my creative genius in high school.
This was the most relaxed PAX I've ever had. I've finally boiled down PAX to what really matters: Friends & Indie Games.
We actually all (minus 1) sat down together at the Tap House Grill and had lunch together. Right in the middle of the day, during normal lunch hours, not to mention the exhibition hall being open. And the food was really good. And we had beers. Like adults. It was a real defining moment: we'd all done this song and dance before and there was no reason we needed to run around frantically, subsisting on junk food and being sleep-deprived.
I didn't even put on makeup for two of the days. Previous PAXes were focused on getting free T-shirts, the majority of which I never wear and fit me poorly, silly swag which sits untouched in bags, and playing up my role of being a hot gamer chick.
I'm hoping that this year's epiphany flows over to my IRL existence and that I can try to cut out some of the things that I used to think were important, but that I don't really need. Boil it down to the things that really matter. And what does really matter? Seems like sleep matters less and less because it's the only way I can hang out with more people.
Writing matters to me. I read somewhere that you have to get to a point where you can't NOT write, when not writing is like dying. I've always been focused on writing something amazing, and that's where it ends. But writing is one of the things that I do that I am genuinely proud of. I re-read good pieces and marvel that it was wrought by my hands and despair that I'll never reach that potential again.
I refuse to believe that I reached my creative genius in high school.
July 3, 2011
Story Gaming
My second time at story gaming was as enjoyable as the first and I think one of the main reasons I enjoy it so much is that it's a chance for me to exercise my creative skill in an enforced manner. I have horrible writer's block/creative anxiety and it frustrates me because I feel like I am a creative individual but cannot express it.
I love that the elements I drop into the world that we're collaborating on become integral pieces. I love surprising myself with what comes out of my mouth. I'm surprised, but not overly so because as soon as my brain thinks of it and it starts coming out of my mouth, there's this feeling that it fits, that this is what is supposed to happen, like I'm on the outside watching and as an astute observer, can guess at what is coming next. It's all about not thinking too hard, intuition, and being flexible. I am unsure what my next sentence will be, but I have the feeling that if I just go with it, it'll turn out really cool.
This isn't my first time at this story-thing rodeo. I've been listening to others tell their favorite stories and telling my own favorite stories for decades. One of my good friends back in middle school was a fantastic storyteller. I loved hearing his stories, even though I'd heard them time and time again. It got so that I knew when he was skimping on details and when he was really launching into it. I would sometimes start laughing before a funny part, in anticipation.
But then, it's not really anyone's first time. We're asked to tell stories every day, often mundane ones, "What did you do today?" "Nothing much."
My own style of storytelling is full of facial expressions, exclaimations, and expectant pauses. But I never embellish. I occationally tell the stories of my friends if they're not there, or if they don't feel up to it.
What is the key to becoming friends with someone? Listen to them tell their stories, tell some of your own, and then go and create stories that the two of you can tell others. The more fantastic and interesting the stories, the faster you'll bond.
Basically, story gaming is genius.
I love that the elements I drop into the world that we're collaborating on become integral pieces. I love surprising myself with what comes out of my mouth. I'm surprised, but not overly so because as soon as my brain thinks of it and it starts coming out of my mouth, there's this feeling that it fits, that this is what is supposed to happen, like I'm on the outside watching and as an astute observer, can guess at what is coming next. It's all about not thinking too hard, intuition, and being flexible. I am unsure what my next sentence will be, but I have the feeling that if I just go with it, it'll turn out really cool.
This isn't my first time at this story-thing rodeo. I've been listening to others tell their favorite stories and telling my own favorite stories for decades. One of my good friends back in middle school was a fantastic storyteller. I loved hearing his stories, even though I'd heard them time and time again. It got so that I knew when he was skimping on details and when he was really launching into it. I would sometimes start laughing before a funny part, in anticipation.
But then, it's not really anyone's first time. We're asked to tell stories every day, often mundane ones, "What did you do today?" "Nothing much."
My own style of storytelling is full of facial expressions, exclaimations, and expectant pauses. But I never embellish. I occationally tell the stories of my friends if they're not there, or if they don't feel up to it.
What is the key to becoming friends with someone? Listen to them tell their stories, tell some of your own, and then go and create stories that the two of you can tell others. The more fantastic and interesting the stories, the faster you'll bond.
Basically, story gaming is genius.
September 5, 2010
PAX 2010
Today was the last day of PAX Prime 2010. It was great as usual. Much much more relaxed this year than previous years, mostly because I've finally given up on winning swag/getting a bunch of free stuff. This economy just isn't cut out for the type of treasure looting I like.
Highlights include:
Highlights include:
- Winning diamonds* from the Monaco booth! I'd been thinking about winning them actually ever since I read the article and the guy was so nice! I played it once on Friday but it was with two little kids and basically we had a hard time working together and everyone died. The second time he basically waved the bag of diamonds* in my face and was like, go ahead and play a game and you'll get these. I got the most points out of my group but the Locksmith class usually does and he didn't really mention any sort of contest.. Anyway it was awesome. *i.e. 10 Cubic Zirconia
- The final Omegathon battle was 15 rounds of The Claw! The plushies were all so cute! Zach and I got great seats up in the balcony section, actually right across the room from Scott Kurtz. This year's game was no less epic than any of the others. Though it was definitely swankier being in Benaroya than being crammed up next to sweaty BO boys in a huge room, but at the same time, it's nice to be able to jump up and down and have the room charged with energy. Benaroya's ceilings are just a little too high for good energy containment.
- I bought Volumes 1-6 of Scott Pilgrim and also got a T-shirt, two wristbands and a sticker. I read through them all during this weekend, though I got a head start at my friends' house several weeks ago.
- I got to hot tub for a bit on Sat. at my hotel. It was pretty nice.
- I played Monty Python Fluxx with a bunch of strangers while waiting in line for the final Omegathon round and didn't win, they were nice to me, but also a bunch of jerks.
September 20, 2008
Movie Review #18: Raise the Red Lantern
9/20 Raise the Red Lantern = Follows the inner politics of a household with four wives. Focuses on the 4th wife and her struggle to survive.I'm still not sure if I've seen this movie before or not. While the movie was good, I still felt like they could have focused more on the women and what it was about them that made the Master marry them in the first place. I can't imagine what they did all day, cooped up in their little "houses", every night wondering if they're going to get the chance to maybe produce a son, which is the only way to better their position in the household and thus in their small world.
Would being a kept woman be super great? Or would you feel tied down to the guy and like a pampered slave? I would think the issue of being bored and useless could be easily solved by going out and getting involved in something of value. Reading to little kids at the library seems like it'd be fun. Or volunteering to help create stage sets for high schools or other theaters. There must be plenty of things that are worth doing without needing monetary compensation. I for one, love accomplishing tasks. I am extremely goal-oriented and, at least in games, will more than likely do plenty of grinding if I like what I'll get in the end. Having lots of little tasks with loose deadlines that I can accomplish easily would be my ideal volunteer work. I mean, my current job is pretty task oriented and I feel like I'm fairly happy in it. Now, if I did the exact same stuff in a cooler, more relaxed and fun-loving company that paid me at least $15k more, I'd be super content. I might even be happier doing it than I would be if I stayed home all day and tried to write. Writing is multitudes scarier and a foggy, undefined task. While I don't particularly want my tasks to be detailed out, I need at least a base level of detail to feel confident in my abilities to successfully accomplish it.
...this is kind of feeling like a boring post. No one is ever interested in hearing about work. I really need to meditate or do something that brings out the muse. Though, I guess this is what this is supposed to be for, practicing the writing so I can get inspired and be creative and re-find my "voice". Okay, now it's going to sound like I'm complaining, but I don't like my current "voice". It's too logical, not theoretical enough, not spontaneous enough. Hmmm. Maybe I should start an episodic short story. No plot, no themes, nothing to start off with. I'll try not to think about it at all and just spend fifteen minutes on each episode. I'm always up for experiments.
September 8, 2008
Ratatat @ the Showbox in the Market
It kind of feels like I've been suddenly obsessed with this band, but I think it's mostly the excitement of discovering a great music feel and then discovering that tons of other people are similarly totally into it too. It's exclusive, but not so exclusive that no one knows what you're talking about. A larger inside joke if you will. Overall, the live performance of it was fantastic and it was great to rock out to it. Even with earplugs. I wouldn't have really imagined that I'd be jumping up and down for some of the parts/songs but it was pretty intense and I just love some of the parts so much. I kind of wish that I had been closer to the stage so I could actually see them, but it really wasn't that important. I'm not really invested in the band members, in fact, I've been thinking that there were only 2 members in the band, but there were three on stage.
The two cover bands were really kind of weird though. The first one, E*Rock, were these two guys with full head/face covers, like KKK, but black and not pointed and the one at the turntable type thing for some reason, had the Wii controller with the nunchuck around his neck and kept on acting like he was playing the Wii or using it somehow...which, even if it were true, was kind of weird.
There's a delicate balance required when using popular implements in an entertainment fashion. If you use it a few days after the thing becomes popular, it's usually considered extremely hip, but if you wait too long it becomes tacky and tryhard. Even more interesting is the relative quickness of tragedy-inspired jokes that pop up practically before you even have a chance to grieve. Each time people are like...too soon? And the answer has always been...nahhh, it's still funny...a bit grotesque/morbid/off-color...but still funny. We're curtailing human sympathies for a quick laugh.
In other news, we killed some time before the concert at Gameworks and Zach got me an awesome T-Rex from the claw machines:
OMG isn't it awesome?
August 31, 2008
PAX 2008 Re-Cap
So this marks my 3rd consecutive year of attending the Penny-Arcade Expo (PAX). Friday and most of Saturday were mostly not the awesome swag getting that I remembered from last year, but I made up for it on Sunday by getting 4 T-shirts within an hour, five if you count the one I bought. Six if you count the one that I got at the Rockstar booth for Zach (the woman just shoved small t-shirts at me and I came out with two). The other cool swag that I got were Penny-Arcade postcards depicting their first D&D 4th Edition Quest (which we also recently finished) and a air gun that shoots little balls. Speaking of balls, I barely saw any Bawls at this year's PAX. I maybe saw one or two empty bottles lying about, but it was definitely not at the forefront of anyone's consciousness. Maybe they're going under? Hahaha...no one likes the bawls. I also didn't see very many raffles and such going on; it was very hard to figure out how and when to get the swag. I didn't attend any extraneous panels this year, which is a deviation from previous years, and I feel like I didn't really miss out. Sadly I didn't get to see Jonathan Coulton, but it was probably for the best...I'm not sick yet from the lack of sleep and running around!
Okay, now, for the more detailed day by day recap:
Thursday
We participated in the Pre-PAX Pub Crawl, also known as the Tri-Wizard Tourny. It was pretty crazy, and we actually met some people, both of which we saw again later at PAX. So that was pretty cool. I was apparently dressed up as Ada Wong from Resident Evil. Maybe next year I'll be a little more accurate. It was pretty fun, though crashing at the guys' place was not so great. Highlights: the make-out session, cream cheese, onion, and ketchup hot dog, and people surreptitiously taking pictures of me.
Friday
PAX begins!! I get up early and take the bus down to the WA Convention Center to stand in line. Zach does not come with because he drank too much the night before and was still feeling ill and needed more sleep. About being in line for a while, I've finished going through the PAX schedule and decide I'm bored enough to try to make friends with the nice looking guy standing next to me. He's not especially talkative initally, but luckily Ben spots me and comes to stand in line with me. He subsequently steals my new friend that's supposed to entertain me and starts to talk shop. And I'm still mostly bored. Once inside the expo hall, three seconds later I spot Zach. Turns out waiting in line was completely worthless. We wander around and completely squander the fact that we're early to the expo (i.e., we should have stood in line for something worth playing, like Left4Dead and RockBand2).
Highlights: the beginning of the Q&A Panel was f-ing BADASS EPIC AWESOME. Everyday I'm hustlin', everyday I'm hustlin'...
Saturday
My fave day at PAX, hands down. In the morning, we got up early and headed over to help some friends move. They had some difficulty getting the van and stuff so they were about 1/2 hour late. It was kind of cold outside and I didn't bring a jacket since I assumed I'd be getting pretty warm from moving stuff. It was warm inside, but Zach was just sitting and sleeping and outside, I chatted with the guys for a little bit but then they also retreated to their car to sleep. So I was bored. I ended up entertaining myself by climbing around and jumping off the porch. However, since I was launching myself off to get the most air to do a cool move before hitting the ground, the momentum practically forced me to do a roll after landing. It was exhilarating, silly, and slightly embarrassing, which resulted in me laughing uncontrollably. It's been a really really long time since the rebellious daredevil f-what people think (sort of) side of me has had an opportunity to get some fresh air. Though I guess the rocking out dancing I did for a RockBand song last week counts too. I used to do that kind of shit all the time. But over time it became more important to me to be the cute, silly, slightly befuddled girl than it was for me to be badass and do things for the shock value. I guess it was growing out of being a teenager. Anyway, I did it to impress people and shake their impression that I was just some quiet asian girl and I think I'm more stable now about who I am as a person that I don't need to do outrageous things to convince myself and others that I'm not stuck in some box. At the same time, it is completely refreshing and freeing to know that I'm still capable of thinking up and following through with my harebrained shenanigans.
Anyway, then at PAX, we hung out in the expo hall until it closed, with a short break to Starbucks near the end. I didn't get very much accomplished, I think I tried winning a t-shirt and failed miserably and kind of played the new Viva Pinata, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The coolest thing was watching a game that's not out yet, The Maw. The environment just looked really beautiful and cute. In retrospect, if I had known it was a PAX 10 contender, I would have voted for it.
After the expo hall closed, we putzed around for a while and then stumbled upon the RockBand freeplay area and they were playing Weezer and everyone was singing along and clapping along. There was some really great community there. Then we went over to the Annex and I got to participate in a large manual, old style adventuring quest, Action Castle, which was pretty cool, even though I almost "used" the fishing rod on the lake. I got to demo Burning Wheel and managed to kick some major ass as the lowly rat guide. It seemed like everyone else also enjoyed watching the demo and that it was a pretty good indicator of what the game play/style/fights are like. The guys actually talk a little bit about their experience doing 5.5 hours of demos on their forum. It looks like there'll be a podcast about it on Tuesday from Front Row Crew. I'll be interested to see if any of my demo session was worth mentioning :). It was a great time, though I was pretty anxious/nervous/hyped up and had the shakes for a good first half of the demo. Then we went back over to the RockBand area and stood in line for a really long time and played Highway Star for everyone. It was super exciting performing for a crowd though the drums were quite a bit harder to play due to the height, chair, and they seemed modded so I had to hit them quite a bit harder for it to register. I didn't get to see any of the cool stuff that everyone did to warm up the crowd, but it seemed like everyone really liked it. I got a high-five afterwards from some random guy. It was a good way to end the night.
Sunday
Got to sleep in a little and got to PAX around 11 or so. Hung around the expo hall doing pretty much nothing else but get t-shirts. We were quite successful at the endeavor too. I stood in line for the second Q&A and not a bit too soon since I managed to be the second to last question. I felt like I stuttered a lot of was weird sounding but Zach said that compared to the other people, I sounded great. After that, Zach and I lounged around on the Sumos for a while and then went to the console freeplay area and checked out Boom Blox. It was entertaining, but we're probably not going to buy it. I have pretty unsteady hands which is a liability in that game. We have so many Wii games that we haven't finished either even though they're just go through mini games. Then we stood in line for some Taco Del Mar food and waited in line with the guys to see the final Omegathon. Which was okay, it turned out to be Vs. ExciteBike. It was f-ing hard, like many of the ancient games. It was also a total shut out, which was too bad and the guy that I was rooting for didn't win :(. Hopefully next year's final round will be cooler. I also didn't win the drawing sadly. Some girl named Grace Wong won though. It would be cool if a girl won the Omegathon someday.
Zach and I ended the day by watching Tsotsi.
Overall, I had a great time at PAX and will need to come up with a better plan next year for making the expo hall a little more worthwhile. The lines are always ridiculous (no one got to play Left4Dead or RockBand2), and the swag was more challenging to get, but there was still cool stuff to see and a surprisingly large number of booth babes this year too. Still undecided about how I feel about that. All I can say is, I can't wait for next year's PAX! I'm so glad I live in Seattle and don't have to pay tons of money to attend it. It's totally worth it.
Okay, now, for the more detailed day by day recap:
Thursday
We participated in the Pre-PAX Pub Crawl, also known as the Tri-Wizard Tourny. It was pretty crazy, and we actually met some people, both of which we saw again later at PAX. So that was pretty cool. I was apparently dressed up as Ada Wong from Resident Evil. Maybe next year I'll be a little more accurate. It was pretty fun, though crashing at the guys' place was not so great. Highlights: the make-out session, cream cheese, onion, and ketchup hot dog, and people surreptitiously taking pictures of me.
Friday
PAX begins!! I get up early and take the bus down to the WA Convention Center to stand in line. Zach does not come with because he drank too much the night before and was still feeling ill and needed more sleep. About being in line for a while, I've finished going through the PAX schedule and decide I'm bored enough to try to make friends with the nice looking guy standing next to me. He's not especially talkative initally, but luckily Ben spots me and comes to stand in line with me. He subsequently steals my new friend that's supposed to entertain me and starts to talk shop. And I'm still mostly bored. Once inside the expo hall, three seconds later I spot Zach. Turns out waiting in line was completely worthless. We wander around and completely squander the fact that we're early to the expo (i.e., we should have stood in line for something worth playing, like Left4Dead and RockBand2).
Highlights: the beginning of the Q&A Panel was f-ing BADASS EPIC AWESOME. Everyday I'm hustlin', everyday I'm hustlin'...
Saturday
My fave day at PAX, hands down. In the morning, we got up early and headed over to help some friends move. They had some difficulty getting the van and stuff so they were about 1/2 hour late. It was kind of cold outside and I didn't bring a jacket since I assumed I'd be getting pretty warm from moving stuff. It was warm inside, but Zach was just sitting and sleeping and outside, I chatted with the guys for a little bit but then they also retreated to their car to sleep. So I was bored. I ended up entertaining myself by climbing around and jumping off the porch. However, since I was launching myself off to get the most air to do a cool move before hitting the ground, the momentum practically forced me to do a roll after landing. It was exhilarating, silly, and slightly embarrassing, which resulted in me laughing uncontrollably. It's been a really really long time since the rebellious daredevil f-what people think (sort of) side of me has had an opportunity to get some fresh air. Though I guess the rocking out dancing I did for a RockBand song last week counts too. I used to do that kind of shit all the time. But over time it became more important to me to be the cute, silly, slightly befuddled girl than it was for me to be badass and do things for the shock value. I guess it was growing out of being a teenager. Anyway, I did it to impress people and shake their impression that I was just some quiet asian girl and I think I'm more stable now about who I am as a person that I don't need to do outrageous things to convince myself and others that I'm not stuck in some box. At the same time, it is completely refreshing and freeing to know that I'm still capable of thinking up and following through with my harebrained shenanigans.
Anyway, then at PAX, we hung out in the expo hall until it closed, with a short break to Starbucks near the end. I didn't get very much accomplished, I think I tried winning a t-shirt and failed miserably and kind of played the new Viva Pinata, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The coolest thing was watching a game that's not out yet, The Maw. The environment just looked really beautiful and cute. In retrospect, if I had known it was a PAX 10 contender, I would have voted for it.
After the expo hall closed, we putzed around for a while and then stumbled upon the RockBand freeplay area and they were playing Weezer and everyone was singing along and clapping along. There was some really great community there. Then we went over to the Annex and I got to participate in a large manual, old style adventuring quest, Action Castle, which was pretty cool, even though I almost "used" the fishing rod on the lake. I got to demo Burning Wheel and managed to kick some major ass as the lowly rat guide. It seemed like everyone else also enjoyed watching the demo and that it was a pretty good indicator of what the game play/style/fights are like. The guys actually talk a little bit about their experience doing 5.5 hours of demos on their forum. It looks like there'll be a podcast about it on Tuesday from Front Row Crew. I'll be interested to see if any of my demo session was worth mentioning :). It was a great time, though I was pretty anxious/nervous/hyped up and had the shakes for a good first half of the demo. Then we went back over to the RockBand area and stood in line for a really long time and played Highway Star for everyone. It was super exciting performing for a crowd though the drums were quite a bit harder to play due to the height, chair, and they seemed modded so I had to hit them quite a bit harder for it to register. I didn't get to see any of the cool stuff that everyone did to warm up the crowd, but it seemed like everyone really liked it. I got a high-five afterwards from some random guy. It was a good way to end the night.
Sunday
Got to sleep in a little and got to PAX around 11 or so. Hung around the expo hall doing pretty much nothing else but get t-shirts. We were quite successful at the endeavor too. I stood in line for the second Q&A and not a bit too soon since I managed to be the second to last question. I felt like I stuttered a lot of was weird sounding but Zach said that compared to the other people, I sounded great. After that, Zach and I lounged around on the Sumos for a while and then went to the console freeplay area and checked out Boom Blox. It was entertaining, but we're probably not going to buy it. I have pretty unsteady hands which is a liability in that game. We have so many Wii games that we haven't finished either even though they're just go through mini games. Then we stood in line for some Taco Del Mar food and waited in line with the guys to see the final Omegathon. Which was okay, it turned out to be Vs. ExciteBike. It was f-ing hard, like many of the ancient games. It was also a total shut out, which was too bad and the guy that I was rooting for didn't win :(. Hopefully next year's final round will be cooler. I also didn't win the drawing sadly. Some girl named Grace Wong won though. It would be cool if a girl won the Omegathon someday.
Zach and I ended the day by watching Tsotsi.
Overall, I had a great time at PAX and will need to come up with a better plan next year for making the expo hall a little more worthwhile. The lines are always ridiculous (no one got to play Left4Dead or RockBand2), and the swag was more challenging to get, but there was still cool stuff to see and a surprisingly large number of booth babes this year too. Still undecided about how I feel about that. All I can say is, I can't wait for next year's PAX! I'm so glad I live in Seattle and don't have to pay tons of money to attend it. It's totally worth it.
August 27, 2008
How to Entice a Nerd
Having a nerdy boyfriend is becoming more popular these days and not just because of the potential financial gain, but because the nerd of this day and age is no longer merely a programmer, he is the handyman of all things computer-related and most importantly, can quickly self-educate on anything else you need. Most nerds are loyal but have issues with self-esteem and being social (think of it as a challenge).
Now, it is extremely easy to attract a nerd's interest, but to truly develop a lasting relationship, you need to do your homework. If this comes naturally to you, congrats! All you need to do is go out there and drop some references. If not, use the lists and suggestions below to find at least one or two nerdy things that you feel you can get into. Remember, it has to be genuine interest! Nerds are smart, they'll eventually see through you if you feign interest in a nerdy activity. For the good-looking ones, it'll be a big bonus if you are at least down-to-earth pretty. It's been my experience that most nerds like girls that don't spend an inordinate amount of time looking good every day (it also intimidates them). This means minimal to no makeup day-to-day, but feel free to glam up for special occasions.
Required Reading List:
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (for extra credit, read the entire series)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Recommended: Snowcrash, 1984, Dune, A Brave New World, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter series
Required Watching List:
Star Wars (original)
At Least 5 episodes of Star Trek (The Next Generation version)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (for extra credit, watch the other Monty Python offerings)
Office Space
Evangelion
Firefly TV series
2001: Space Odyssey
The Simpsons TV series
Recommended: Futurama TV series, South Park TV series, The 5th Element, Ghost Busters
Websites:
Slashdot - News
Digg - News
IGN - Gaming News
Wikipedia - Information about everything
xkcd - Comic
Penny Arcade - Gaming Comic
Homestar Runner - Animated Web Comic
Bonus: research Internet Memes, such as All Your Base Are Belong to Us
Basic Terminology:
Monitor - the screen that you are looking at. Is connected to the
Computer - the box that holds the various parts that allow you to do stuff, like access the
Internet - a network of cables throughout the world that allow your computer to be connected to servers and millions of other computers, not to be confused with
Internet Browsers - programs that display the content of the Internet such as Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.
Motherboard - core piece of your computer that determines how much RAM your computer can handle and the other types of pieces that your computer can use.
Random Access Memory (RAM) - the part in your computer that controls how many items you can have open at a time and running. Not to be confused with
Hard Drive Space - what your computer uses to store files and programs.
Sound Card - is considered to be "on board" if the motherboard comes with one. Used to produce sound. Can be bought as a separate piece from the motherboard.
Video Card - same as sound card except for video/motion, especially important for computer games because their graphics are more intense.
Ping Time - the amount of time it takes your computer to access a game server or website.
Lag - used to describe what happens when you have a high ping time. For example, games tend to look like they're moving in slow motion and websites take a really long time to refresh.
Framerate - used in games to describe how quickly the screen refreshes. Measured in seconds, framerate per second or FPS, which is not to be confused with
First Person Shooter (FPS) - a genre of games where you are the person shooting things. Examples would be Halo, Quake, Doom, or HalfLife/CounterStrike.
Leet (written as 1337) - elite or cool.
Über - a german word meaning super or extreme.
Fail or Epic Fail - when you or someone has messed up.
w00t or woot - exclaimation of pride and accomplishment.
Pwn or Pwned - to win against someone or to say that someone has been beaten. For example, "I pwned you!" would be equivalent to saying "I beat you!".
Bonus:
Frag - to kill someone in a first person shooter game.
Modem - Short for modulator-demodulator. Enables a computer to transmit data over telephone or cable lines. Computer information is stored digitally but information sent over telephone lines is in the form of analog waves. A modem converts between these two forms.
Router - directs Internet information.
Games:
*Note* - Games can be pretty expensive and it is not necessary that you have actually played the game. An interest in playing a game is just as good and is a ready-made date idea. For any of the titles below, you can look up information from various websites (IGN).
Computer (also known as PC) games - Spore, Quake/Doom/Half-Life/CounterStrike, World of Warcraft (WoW), Diablo, StarCraft, Portal, Fallout, Might and Magic, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War
Console (an extra piece of equipment you need to buy to play the game) games - Halo, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, RockBand (extra credit if you can play the drums), Burnout, Final Fantasy
Different types of consoles:
XBox 360 - made by Microsoft
Wii - made by Nintendo
Playstation 3 (PS3) - made by Sony
Bonus: read up on Jack Thompson and listen to a few Jonathan Coltan's songs (Still Alive (though it's the end song to the game Portal), Code Monkey, Re: Your Brains).
Now, it is extremely easy to attract a nerd's interest, but to truly develop a lasting relationship, you need to do your homework. If this comes naturally to you, congrats! All you need to do is go out there and drop some references. If not, use the lists and suggestions below to find at least one or two nerdy things that you feel you can get into. Remember, it has to be genuine interest! Nerds are smart, they'll eventually see through you if you feign interest in a nerdy activity. For the good-looking ones, it'll be a big bonus if you are at least down-to-earth pretty. It's been my experience that most nerds like girls that don't spend an inordinate amount of time looking good every day (it also intimidates them). This means minimal to no makeup day-to-day, but feel free to glam up for special occasions.
Required Reading List:
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (for extra credit, read the entire series)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Recommended: Snowcrash, 1984, Dune, A Brave New World, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter series
Required Watching List:
Star Wars (original)
At Least 5 episodes of Star Trek (The Next Generation version)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (for extra credit, watch the other Monty Python offerings)
Office Space
Evangelion
Firefly TV series
2001: Space Odyssey
The Simpsons TV series
Recommended: Futurama TV series, South Park TV series, The 5th Element, Ghost Busters
Websites:
Slashdot - News
Digg - News
IGN - Gaming News
Wikipedia - Information about everything
xkcd - Comic
Penny Arcade - Gaming Comic
Homestar Runner - Animated Web Comic
Bonus: research Internet Memes, such as All Your Base Are Belong to Us
Basic Terminology:
Monitor - the screen that you are looking at. Is connected to the
Computer - the box that holds the various parts that allow you to do stuff, like access the
Internet - a network of cables throughout the world that allow your computer to be connected to servers and millions of other computers, not to be confused with
Internet Browsers - programs that display the content of the Internet such as Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.
Motherboard - core piece of your computer that determines how much RAM your computer can handle and the other types of pieces that your computer can use.
Random Access Memory (RAM) - the part in your computer that controls how many items you can have open at a time and running. Not to be confused with
Hard Drive Space - what your computer uses to store files and programs.
Sound Card - is considered to be "on board" if the motherboard comes with one. Used to produce sound. Can be bought as a separate piece from the motherboard.
Video Card - same as sound card except for video/motion, especially important for computer games because their graphics are more intense.
Ping Time - the amount of time it takes your computer to access a game server or website.
Lag - used to describe what happens when you have a high ping time. For example, games tend to look like they're moving in slow motion and websites take a really long time to refresh.
Framerate - used in games to describe how quickly the screen refreshes. Measured in seconds, framerate per second or FPS, which is not to be confused with
First Person Shooter (FPS) - a genre of games where you are the person shooting things. Examples would be Halo, Quake, Doom, or HalfLife/CounterStrike.
Leet (written as 1337) - elite or cool.
Über - a german word meaning super or extreme.
Fail or Epic Fail - when you or someone has messed up.
w00t or woot - exclaimation of pride and accomplishment.
Pwn or Pwned - to win against someone or to say that someone has been beaten. For example, "I pwned you!" would be equivalent to saying "I beat you!".
Bonus:
Frag - to kill someone in a first person shooter game.
Modem - Short for modulator-demodulator. Enables a computer to transmit data over telephone or cable lines. Computer information is stored digitally but information sent over telephone lines is in the form of analog waves. A modem converts between these two forms.
Router - directs Internet information.
Games:
*Note* - Games can be pretty expensive and it is not necessary that you have actually played the game. An interest in playing a game is just as good and is a ready-made date idea. For any of the titles below, you can look up information from various websites (IGN).
Computer (also known as PC) games - Spore, Quake/Doom/Half-Life/CounterStrike, World of Warcraft (WoW), Diablo, StarCraft, Portal, Fallout, Might and Magic, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War
Console (an extra piece of equipment you need to buy to play the game) games - Halo, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, RockBand (extra credit if you can play the drums), Burnout, Final Fantasy
Different types of consoles:
XBox 360 - made by Microsoft
Wii - made by Nintendo
Playstation 3 (PS3) - made by Sony
Bonus: read up on Jack Thompson and listen to a few Jonathan Coltan's songs (Still Alive (though it's the end song to the game Portal), Code Monkey, Re: Your Brains).
August 13, 2008
Anytime Present Ideas
Since my friends are no longer (were they ever...?) doing birthday presents this year, I thought I should start encouraging Anytime presents. The list below represents items that I like in general (some imagination might be needed to make an appropriate gift) and stuff that I can't imagine having too much of.
Anytime Present Ideas:
Cute stickers
Postcards
Canned Corn/Corn on the Cob (roasted or steamed)
donut peaches
A list of interesting books/movies
Fresh flowers
Fruits Basket Manga
Ramen
Unique/creative pottery
Performance/Interactive Art
Themed parties
Garage/yard/rummage sales
Knowing interesting facts about others' lives
Yarn
Roasted marshmallows
Geeky/nerdy funny items (clothing, etc.)
Starbucks
Tim's Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips
Traveling and doing touristy stuff
Winning at games
Card games
Hugs
Arbitrary organization (for example, in a candy dish, separating the candy by color)
Bubble tea
Funny true stories
I guess that should be enough for now. For most of these, I get really excited over.
Anytime Present Ideas:
Cute stickers
Postcards
Canned Corn/Corn on the Cob (roasted or steamed)
donut peaches
A list of interesting books/movies
Fresh flowers
Fruits Basket Manga
Ramen
Unique/creative pottery
Performance/Interactive Art
Themed parties
Garage/yard/rummage sales
Knowing interesting facts about others' lives
Yarn
Roasted marshmallows
Geeky/nerdy funny items (clothing, etc.)
Starbucks
Tim's Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips
Traveling and doing touristy stuff
Winning at games
Card games
Hugs
Arbitrary organization (for example, in a candy dish, separating the candy by color)
Bubble tea
Funny true stories
I guess that should be enough for now. For most of these, I get really excited over.
July 18, 2008
Dead Again - Best Gaming Song Ever?
There's some fundraiser thing related to this song right now to benefit Tom Smith who had a nasty accident on stage and is now in the hospital. I listened to it and caught some of the references (yay for being a well rounded gamer?) but it's not as catchy as Still Alive I would say. Though I would say it has greater appeal to gamers everywhere with at least one of their favorite games mentioned in here somewhere. And we can all bond together with our shared misery of dying over and over and over again. Though it would have been nice if he had mentioned some racing games...like Burnout. Nothing like dying in an explosion of metal and flames while flipping through the air.
http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=1071
Lyrics to Dead Again:
Rocket launcher, rail gun, BFG Nine Thousand One,
Never saw it coming and I never had a chance.
Bad enough being dead, Sub Zero pulled off my head,
Master Chief is doing his victory dance.
http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=1071
Lyrics to Dead Again:
Rocket launcher, rail gun, BFG Nine Thousand One,
Never saw it coming and I never had a chance.
Bad enough being dead, Sub Zero pulled off my head,
Master Chief is doing his victory dance.
Lost Asia in Risk, Diablo burnt me to a crisp,
Even though I had the Godly Plate of the Whale.
Two pair, eights and kings, Sauron got the One Ring,
Getting dysentery on the Oregon Trail.
Harry Potter came up short dueling with Voldemort,
Elspeth Holliday met the Blair Witch.
Spider-Man showed such aplomb till he met that pumpkin bomb,
Mr. Incredible didn't throw the switch.
Cliff racers, cave bats, stupid frickin' giant rats,
Deadly pirahna poodles, or soldier ants,
You were eaten by a grue, Hah! The wumpus got you,
Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo teabagged in Halo 2
Dead again,
Splattered all over a rendered killing floor,
Dead again,
Let me respawn and I'll be back for more,
Dead again,
Let me get to the checkpoint, then you can do your worst,
Dead again,
Then I'll reload but this time I'll shoot first.
My marble plummets from a height, should have rolled it to the right,
Jumped through lots of traffic but then fell off a log.
Russian cubes from the sky, and I let 'em stack too high,
Punched right off the screen by a humanoid frog.
T-rex got me, now I'm toast, chased down by a blinking ghost,
Landed on some spikes and dropped every last ring.
Bitten by a fanged slug, Jafar zapped my flying rug,
Trampled in a bog by a Barbarian King.
Mechanized war bots, Mudokan slingshots,
Centipede dropping a flea on my head.
Couldn't fly as Alfred Chicken, Duke Nukem kept on kickin',
Fought Guy of Gisborne with only some bread.
Skeletons hit me twice, dragon breath cased me in ice,
Couldn't line up all the jewels three in a row,
Shot up by Miami cops, beaten with karate chops,
Kept on missing platform hops, and the timer never stops.
Dead again,
How come these worlds have so many bottomless pits?
Dead again,
And everyone that I meet wants me blown to bits.
Dead again,
Reincarnation one byte at a time,
Dead again,
It's so embarassing to be killed by green slime.
Real life goes on until you're
Dead, or so I'm told,
Injury, catastrophe, or
Simply growing old
Fantasy's supposed to be where
You can find your dreams,
But all I find is game designers
Hooked on players' screams.
Smothered by a boa constrictor, drawn and quartered by a lich or
Eaten by a cat while dodging Beethoven's Fifth.
My flying ostrich drowned, monkeys thowing barrels down,
Torn apart by creatures out of legend and myth.
Zombies got a hold of Jill, nurses up in Silent Hill,
All those German snipers on the beach at Omaha.
Swallowed by the sand worms, infected by some nasty germs,
Didn't slap the leather when I heard him say, "DRAW!"
Running from Koala Kong, made a turn that's really wrong,
Sephiroth's supernova fried us where we stood.
Broiled in a lava flow, squashed by Super Mario,
Didn't make my saving throw against lawful good.
Thirty zillion space machines blowning up in cut scenes,
I actually found a way to die in Myst.
Ninja swords decapitate, plasma guns obliterate,
Pocket nukes annihilate, reboot, transubstantiate.
Dead again,
Inching ahead until once more I choke,
Dead again,
The funeral bills would leave my whole state broke,
Dead again,
Something is trying to chew off both my legs,
Dead again,
Who in the hell dreams up these easter eggs?
Dead again,
All of the guys at work think I'm a freak,
Dead again,
They watch golf and NASCAR every week,
Dead again,
They'll never understand what I call fun,
Dead again,
'Cause any of my lives is cooler than their one.
July 15, 2008
E3 2008 - Microsoft, EA, Nintendo, & Sony's Press Conferences
Microsoft Press Conference - I want to be a Microsoft Booth Babe!
EA Press Conference - Man I need to play with that Spore Creature Creator soon.
Nintendo Press Conference - Yay! More Animal Crossing!
Sony Press Conference - Ugh wow...the 80 GB for $400...still pretty pricey. Little Big Planet looks hella fun though...I think I should be able to find some friends that have a PS3 come October...
EA Press Conference - Man I need to play with that Spore Creature Creator soon.
Nintendo Press Conference - Yay! More Animal Crossing!
Sony Press Conference - Ugh wow...the 80 GB for $400...still pretty pricey. Little Big Planet looks hella fun though...I think I should be able to find some friends that have a PS3 come October...
November 7, 2007
Saving the Monies
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21548538/
retirement calculator: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21563675/
Man, I hope retirement is all that it's cracked up to be. There'd better be some awesome games 40 years from now! Hopefully, there'll be some worthwhile stuff still standing to visit and that the smog won't ruin the view. Hopefully, the kids (if there are any) won't turn out to be bums that live at my house still and the world in relative peace to make traveling safe enough.
I can't even begin to fathom life in 40 years. Hopefully I'll still be around.
retirement calculator: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21563675/
Man, I hope retirement is all that it's cracked up to be. There'd better be some awesome games 40 years from now! Hopefully, there'll be some worthwhile stuff still standing to visit and that the smog won't ruin the view. Hopefully, the kids (if there are any) won't turn out to be bums that live at my house still and the world in relative peace to make traveling safe enough.
I can't even begin to fathom life in 40 years. Hopefully I'll still be around.
Reality TV...for Gaming!
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/topheadlines/~3/178564050/pl_games
Man, the Japanese think of everything great! If this caught on here, it would super boost the gaming industry as well as make gaming more accepted as a somewhat type of sport. Maybe a split screen of the gamer and the game. All those gamers out there that gave up on the game because it was too hard would be able to finally see the ending and stuff. Or in the case of poorly planned (re)formats, when the game file gets wiped and it's too much trouble to go through it all again. Perhaps this is the idea that Zach and I have been waiting for and I should be podcast gaming?
Man, the Japanese think of everything great! If this caught on here, it would super boost the gaming industry as well as make gaming more accepted as a somewhat type of sport. Maybe a split screen of the gamer and the game. All those gamers out there that gave up on the game because it was too hard would be able to finally see the ending and stuff. Or in the case of poorly planned (re)formats, when the game file gets wiped and it's too much trouble to go through it all again. Perhaps this is the idea that Zach and I have been waiting for and I should be podcast gaming?
October 31, 2007
Non-Picture Exhibit C, D & E
Ugh, uploading pixs to Blogger is horrendously difficult. These don't really need pictures to be enjoyed anyway...
Exhibit C: Las Vegas
For Rae's 21 Birthday extravaganza, she decided she wanted to go party it up in Vegas. Ironically, very little partying happened, most of it being done by Zach, Andy, and me. I took extremely few pictures during the trip because Zach and I had stayed in Vegas for about a week last year and pretty much saw everything noteworthy then.
Highlights from the trip:
- Getting a bruise the size of a half dollar on my elbow because of getting knocked around so much on the New York New York roller coaster ride. My shoulders were also sore for the rest of the stay.
- Warily watching the Harley Davidson motorcycles sway back and forth as they were lifted up above us while eating at the Harley Davidson Cafe.
- Learning to play Craps! And then promptly losing $40 each that night during our first Craps experience. However, later on Zach and I played again and won $25 each.
Only losing $5 total on gambling! Comparatively, Pat lost several hundred dollars playing poker. - Playing an abridged version of pool volleyball where the rules were expanded a bit and the score didn't matter.
- A random convo with some Brits...after some very very cramped clubbing, we were sitting on a bench in one of the malls and this group of British chaps came over and we had a bit of a row about how three of their shoes were piss poor and the bloke at the club wouldn't let them in. Bugger that! It was pretty entertaining.
- Watching Zumanity. They had a couple who had been married for 40 years go up and do a 'romantic slow dance' which they didn't look all that enthralled about and halfway through the dance they up and decided they had done enough dancing and tried to get off stage. Unfortunately, they just stood at the edge and looked down because they didn't go to a spot that had stairs...poor old people, not up to the stage jumping.
- Watching Spamalot. Only Zach, Slava, and I went because everyone else thought it'd be lame. How can getting a grail filled with strawberry daiquiri be lame?! And the Holy Grail store afterwards had the fanged bunny slippers that made Zach almost cum in his pants.
Exhibit D: Housewarming Party
The housewarming party was a long time in coming. I put it off so I would have ample time to finish getting unpacked. Ha, as if. There's still a couple boxes in the living room. It was super fab though, I had yummy spinach dip, fresh veggies (the sugar snap peas went like crazy) with dill dip, chips (the delicious Hawaiian chips that come in a purple bag), and bagel bites. And of course GUITAR HERO!! Though I didn't get to play much it was probably for the best since the whole slowing of the brain signals to the hands makes doing any song on Hard REALLY hard. Again not many pictures though there are a lot that my friend Megan put up that I subsequently stole from her facebook.
Exhibit E: Wild Mushroom Show
Yum! Mushrooms galore! The best part of this show, which was at the UW Horticulture Center (which was also the place for my Tech Comm graduation) was that we were allowed to bring in mushrooms that we found for ID. So that morning, I went to the front yard to dig up some mushrooms that were growing aplenty and after looking closely, noticed that there was another kind too after digging that one up, I noticed yet another kind. Then I turn around and there's this quite large mushroom growing right behind me! So I found FOUR different kinds of mushrooms in my front yard. Later on, Zach and I went into the backyard and found at least two other kinds. The big mushroom turned out to be a shaggy mane, which is apparently quite edible. Unfortunately, there was only one and I haven't seen any others growing yet. It was really great though because at the show, they had a bunch of shaggy manes and I was all like, Lookit here, I have one too! There was also a chef cooking mushrooms and I got to have a little taste. Speaking of mushrooms, the stuffed portabella mushroom food item ( Champignon Gefullt mit Knoblauch und Kase, mit Spätzle und Gemischtem Salat) at Fierabiend is delish.
Thoughts on Guitar Hero 3
Sunday: Strolled into Best Buy and picked up my pre-order of Guitar Hero 3 at around 12:30. Managed to stave off playing by reading Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (a great book btw) until around 2 PM. Then I pretty much played until around 10. With two or three 15 minute breaks scattered unevenly throughout. Initial feelings? So far, there aren't any songs that really stick out to me as being must play songs. Whenever I play any of the other GH versions, there's at least two or three songs that I have to play and hear. And there's a surprising amount of foreign songs as bonus tracks. One of them, Generation Rock, I didn't even realize was foreign until about 1/3 of the way through, I was like....you know, I don't think this song is actually in English...maybe that's why I can't understand any words besides the work Rock. Most rock songs have a bit of mumbling here and there and screeched out lyrics so I didn't really pay much attention.
Monday: In retrospect, I was probably just burnt out. Andy and I finally unlocked the song that I'd been waiting for, "Monsters" by Matchbook Romance. Yayz. I guess some of the other songs need some time to grow on ya. And man do I love earning money and buying stuff from the store. The. Best. Thing. Ever. It was also entertaining seeing the expressions from Andy and Ben on the various songs and various factoids. Too bad I'm not more into music, it'd be nice to know when I should be excited to unlock certain songs.
Monday: In retrospect, I was probably just burnt out. Andy and I finally unlocked the song that I'd been waiting for, "Monsters" by Matchbook Romance. Yayz. I guess some of the other songs need some time to grow on ya. And man do I love earning money and buying stuff from the store. The. Best. Thing. Ever. It was also entertaining seeing the expressions from Andy and Ben on the various songs and various factoids. Too bad I'm not more into music, it'd be nice to know when I should be excited to unlock certain songs.
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