Raithe

I don't know, it always comes across as rugby played by men in tights and 40lbs of protective gear taking a break every 5 minutes... Wait, I should avoid the potential trolling there. Maybe it's just all about the lens flare? Although Simon Pegg was quite proud to announce that yes, Abrams was returning to Star Trek 2 with plenty of lens flare... It's just become the in thing of late...

And for the quote of the day : "Superbowl is on in the pub. So far its a bunch of extremlely homoerotic lens flare filled shots of muscley men. Awesome!"

The nerdiest yet truest phrase ever. "JAVA - Just Another Vulnerability Announcement”.

Organised up skype conference calls for my TOR guild to use saturday afternoon whilst running multiple hm flashpoints. Found out my sister's voice comes across as if she's sniffed some helium over mic which was somewhat amusing. Voice chat definitely makes coordination and teamwork smoother. Also provides more of a laughter track between folks involved.

Discussing a general "theme" to the campaign can be good, both so everyone knows what they all want (individually and collectively) and it should help with establishing a group of characters that won't be wildly out of place. Such as running what turns out to be a city based political campaign with a group that includes a bunch of wilderness type players.. or a pirate/sea based campaign where no-one actually knows how to sail or swim.... A fish out of water can be fun to play from a certain standpoint, but it can be a tad awkward learning how to play if most of their skills and abilities aren't immediatly useful without too much thinking.

We're the same person.. in different bodies. Exactly. Had a batch of awkward sleeping this week. Or rather, not getting to sleep until around 4amish. Had grinding headache and pretty much went through the day with my brain half shut off. Just spent the last hour soaking in a hot tub and skim-reading Servant of the Empire once more.

Ah, that was one of the comments left on that article.

Klingong Guide To Writing Perfect Code The 12 most common statements you are likely to hear from a Klingon programmer: Number 12: “Specifications are for the weak and timid!” Number 11: “This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!” Number 10: “You cannot begin to appreciate Dilbert unless you have read it in the original Klingon!” Number 9: “Indentation?! I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!” Number 8: “What is this talk of ‘release’? Klingons do not ‘release’ software. We uncage our software, letting it leave a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.” Number 7: “Klingon function calls do not have ‘parameters.’ They have ‘arguments’ . . . and they ALWAYS WIN THEM!” Number 6: “Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.” Number 5: “I have challenged the entire quality assurance team to a Bat-Leth contest. They will not trouble us again.” Number 4: “A TRUE Klingon programmer does not comment his code!” Number 3: “By filing this PTR you have challenged the honor of my family. Prepare to die!” Number 2: “You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!” Number 1: “Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!”

Heh, and for the other perspective on it, a comment from someone involved:

How the Battle of Asakai Became One of the Largest Space Battles in Video Game History When the Goonswarm ship fell under attack, they called for reinforcements. So did everyone else. Goonswarm is part of a larger umbrella group called the Cluster **** Coalition (the only drawback to the coolness of this story is the juvenile names some of the groups have), and the battle soon became CFC against pretty much everyone else. Soon, the battle was so enormous it actually caused time to slow down. EVE Online has had trouble with large battles in the past (in fact, one slightly larger than the Battle of Asakai happened in October 2012) – server lag can destroy the experience. To help, they use something called Time Dilation. When the server load gets too high, the star system where the battle is occurring is slowed down to as little as 10 percent of real-time. It's basically intentional lag. Battle slows down, but all commands and events are processed properly and in order, unlike the chaos of true lag. Because systems outside the battle are not affected by Time Dilation, it allowed lots of time for reinforcements to arrive in-system and join the fight. In the end, the CFC was soundly defeated, losing 44 Dreadnoughts, 29 Carriers, five Supercarriers, and three Titans to TEST's six Dreadnoughts, 11 Carriers, and one Supercarrier. The Titan that started it all survived. Total losses are estimated at 700 billion ISK (EVE's in-game currency). What's really interesting is that EVE allows ISK to be bought and sold freely, so those loses can be translated into real-world amounts. In this case, estimates suggest losses of about $15,000. What's even more interesting is the capacity for open-ended games like EVE Online to create emergent stories. Nothing was prescripted about the storylines that lead to the battle -– not the alliances, the mining conglomerate, the bad blood between the groups, or the events of the battle itself. EVE creates a set of economic and military factors and lets the players run loose. The stories (and battles) occur organically. Similar things have happened with other sandbox style games, such as Day Z, where your struggles to survive among ranveous zombies and hostile players can lead to bizarre, thrilling or even emotionally resonant stories.

But can you imagine the frustration and mystery of peeling back layers, following minions.. going up against the potential big bad..only to find out there's that hidden claw pulling his strings? All of which slowly lead you from one encounter to another until finally the grand reveal of the mysterious and powerful OZ! - wait.. I mean dragon. And then to end up in a rather civilised conversation, where you find out said dragon might be manipulative but isn't actually evil and is doing it for a grand vision.... The confusion then!

One issue with Reputation as a mechanic, is if you have multiple reputations with the assoreted factions, is there also going to be one "Universal" reputation for how famous/notable your character might be? Also, as has been mentioned, does it make sense that your actions are immediately known and recognised throughout the whole world? Is there going to be some sense of reputation gains/losses only in the immediate area, but then over time the stories of your actions spreads out and those reputation modifiers spread further? So if you move fast enough, will you outrun your reputation? Heh, I could amost see one faction spreading a false story about you to change your reputation in an area and the potential side-quest that would look into it and reveal the truth.. You don't have to take the quest, but then you'll have to deal with the Reputation shift....

The one thing that bugs me most about the majority of dragons in fantasy games.. They are supposed to be these immensely powerful, intelligent beings who love to have hoards (for one reason or another)... so why are they usually presented as a slug-a-thon fighting beast loitering around in a cave waiting for adventurer's to come fight them? Have the dragon as the mastermind pulling strings, have minions and henchmen and be the one quietly running a grand trading network across the continent.. funneling the odd treasures across and not just being some brooding, waiting around for other people to do stuff. That's one of the reasons I like the dragons in Shadowrun so much. They have plans, they have politics, they have intrigue, and they use their intelligence.

There are Chuck episodes.. and then there are Chuck episodes..

Why do I get the feeling someone is going back to watch all the episodes of Chuck where a certain someone is in revealing outfits? o O (And I'm not talking about Adam Baldwin....)

I think my response would be more based around it being DnD 4th Edition then strictly the MMO aspect. To be honest, any time I've tried sitting down and getting a feel for that edition it's made my skin crawl. The books have great art, but the mechanics just... It's almost as if they've tried shoe-horning WoW rules into a DnD format and made it very.. hack n slash n model combatty. So having them then transfer that back into a computer game just hits me with a firm wince and "no".

They're doing the national tour again, so it's down South at the moment. I did go to London and see it some years ago, and that was worthwhile. But yes, the chandalier is much toned down. It used to be hanging closer to the theatre balcony and would actually drop and swing down above the audiences head before "landing" on the stage. Now it just kind of does some popping and light flickering and minor flash burst effects. Certainly not as dramatic. They have a big, semi-circular revolving wall/set piece that helps transfer from one set to another which is some slick, and I kind of admire the technical aspect of it, but they've turned that into the decent to the underground with steps that slowly project out and form great shadows... but I have to admit I miss the old school "see-saw" type runway in the fog that they used to use. It seemed a touch more moody and evocative... When Masquerade starts up, they've taken away the grand staircase design, turned it into a big flashy mirrored ballroom. Which makes the masquerade dance a lot more effective, but theh Phantom's entrance doesn't have quite the same oomf as his appearance on the stairs. And it also means they can't do the puff of smoke and the Phantom leaving through a trapdoor in the floor. Now it's just a case of pyrotechnics to the side to "scare" the crowd and he strides out the doors. And now the Phantom pulls a direct Obi-Wan style disapearance at the end. They no longer have that throne/chair in his lair that he settles into and then sinks in while covered in his cape. Now they actually have the mob find him there as he's wearing a big bulky hooded cloak, Meg Giry grabs his "shoulders", he takes a step.. and then the whole cloak flutters to the floor as if he's joined the Force and Become More Powerful Then You Could Ever Imagine with no Phantom or body in it. The music box is big and bulky..and the monkey is teeny-tiny. Which is kind of amusing. But seriously, the performances were all top notch. The music is good, although a couple of times they had it just at that point where it loud enough to swamp out the singing. Still entertaining, some interesting changes, but I don't think they all worked.

Happy Fox..

Got suited up and went to the theatre. The new run of Phantom of the Opera. Some good performances and interesting in the way they've changed some of the set pieces, very slick on the way sets revolve back and forth, but I think somethings been lost in all of that. The drama of the Chandalier has gone from one that did a mock "fall" over the audiences heads to a few cracks and sparkles in said chandalier. A few other things like that.

Rule 0 - It's about having fun, not following the explicit letter of the rules..

At some point I'll have to get around to picking up the Omega dlc to see what it's like....

On which note, be careful of the choice of flowers. I've met a few girls who really didn't like roses or the idea of roses as some romantic gesture. So going with certain other types can work better before you find out how they feel on the matter...