General

This is pretty much what I wanted out of the new expansion. To fight Tiamat. This was posted on Google+

I’ll never stop trying to get people to read one of the most tragically forgotten masters of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Lloyd Biggle Jr.a review of Silence Is Deadly There’s this one Lloyd Biggle Jr book I never finished, and I keep picking up his books wondering if this is the one. So far, I haven’t found it. But they are all blasts to my… This was posted on Google+

Finished William Gibson’s “The Peripheral”. A barely employed woman from a rural near future subs for her brother as a game beta tester and sees a gruesome murder in the game which seems set in a London of the far future. But, it’s not a game, the death is real, she’s the only one who knows, and her knowledge puts two continua at risk. To say any more would be to spoil the threads of confusion Gibson carefully sows in the first hundred pages, which tell two stories in settings that appear at turns familiar and utterly strange before finally meeting via the peculiar agency of the titular peripheral. ...

Took a chance on the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “Radio Free Albemuth”. Really reminds me of one of those sixties or seventies science fiction movies – no real special effects, just telling a story. In this case, a story where an actor portraying Philip K. Dick himself is both the narrator and a character. I’ve never read the original book – I slogged through VALIS, and that was about all I needed to know about Dick’s views on religious epiphanies. But, I’ve read his (widely available) personal notes that led to the book that led to movie, so… it’s probably a good look into Dick’s mindset during his religious phase. ...

Guild Wars 2 I didn’t get to all my games today, but I made good progress on the ones I did play. I’ve been having some troubling continuing my personal story on Guild Wars 2. My character is trying to get glimpses into possible futures by supercharging a gadget called an Infinity Ball. It has basically never worked. She and her partner keep feeding it more and ever more power, and it just becomes ever more dangerous. Considering just charging it up on the Megahydrocollider (or whatever) ran a risk of destroying all life on Tyria. ...

.yarr { padding: 5px; float: left; } “Oh, ship ahoy, and where do you steer?” Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we; “Are you man-of-war, or privateer?” On the bonny coasts of Barbary. “I am neither one of the two,” said she, Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we; “I’m a pirate, looking for my fee,” On the bonny coasts of Barbary. Pirate101, the new free-to-play, family-friendly fantasy pirate game from the makers of the popular Wizard101, went live today. If you ever played Wizard101, you’ll remember the Spiral, a linked set of island worlds hanging in the void. What ships ply that void? ...

Whimsyshire I have to reluctantly admit that Diablo 3 became somewhat less fun when we stopped with Hardcore Mode. It was totally necessary that we go normal mode, because we just weren’t progressing, having to restart over and over again. There are other games, of course. Getting a million gold in the auction house, dropping 300K on a marginal tunic upgrade because why not? People rerolling after farming Inferno for a few weeks have more than enough gold to waste on my junk, so I let ’em. ...

Epimetheus, Titan and Saturn's A and F rings This has little to do with Blizzard’s upcoming MMO, code name Titan, largely because I know nothing about it. I’d like to be enthusiastic about it, but like the late, lamented Project Copernicus, no information means no enthusiasm. Teasing can work if it’s followed fairly soon by something real. In Project Copernicus’ case, I think they wanted to show more. In Blizzard’s case, they don’t want to take anything away from World of Warcraft – and that’s understandable. Even in its decline, it’s the most popular MMO in the world. ...

Marvel: Avenger's Alliance It’s kinda sad when a blogger fades away. Sadder when it’s me. I’m still blogging, though, more than ever – just not about games. I got fascinated with going around New England with my car and/or my bike, taking pictures of bridges, and having a reason to explore. That’s my “Bartle” type – Explorer, Socializer, Achiever, Killer. Except in real life I am not very social, care almost nothing for achievements, and would never kill anyone, so it’s an “E”. The bridge blog is called Life, On a Bridged, and I doubt many gamers would find it all that interesting. ...