It was cold, grey, and rainy today, so I shut down and decided to ignore it. So I did. And, of course, not only did I pay attention such days make my brain a bit mushy. With that in mind, we'll just fiddle around until we hit word count.
I did have something bubbling under but I don't think I should waste it here. It's fairly universal, though, so it won't hurt to sit on it. In short, there's a reason knowing how American politics actually useful and just hoping for a savior never, ever works. Getting stuff done actually takes a lot of work. In short, it's outlined on Twitter here.
This is why I have such frustration with the American left. That is politics to the left of, say, Joe Biden but would be relatively moderate elsewhere. Instead of understanding what it will take to actually get stuff done - mainly, time and effort - they seem content to piss and whine that they're not given the keys to the kingdom based on their moral superiority alone. It's not all that different from the current temper tantrum thrown by Trumpists, actually, infuriated that the People would have the gall to think someone else should be president rather than Father Trump.
Speaking of which, by this time tomorrow evening - hopefully as you're reading The News of that day - Donald Trump will no longer be president. He will be on his way to doing whatever the hell he does for the rest of his wretched existence. I personally don't care if he's held accountable for his actions. This is, after all, America and we do not hold the rich and powerful accountable for shit. I just never want to hear his opinion on anything ever again. It's embarrassing we had to for so long.
Granted, I'm sure we're looking at at least four years of the sour losers whining that they didn't get their way and, no doubt, a certain amount of petulant violence from clowns who don't get the president isn't and can't be a king. Fuck 'em. The Klan once held outsized pull in the country, not just the South. Now they're considered a national shame and participants are considered worse for having even the briefest association with them. It'll be like that for MAGAs one day, hopefully, and sooner than later.
Moving on. I've been digging back into the Ultima games, particularly the ones I haven't played (IX and the Underworld games) as well as the mods for the Dungeon Siege games. They turn the original into updated versions of V and VI. They're pretty neat if goddamn hard. Of course, V was pretty hard all on its own, but this is something else. At the same time, the mods expand the stories of both. For example, in VI the war with the gargoyles was sort of a background thing. In the mod, it's an ongoing thing you have to deal with along with everything else. At least at the beginning, anyway. They're a little on the buggy side but a hoot for long-time fans. Here are the links, Ultima V: Lazarus and The Ultima VI Project.
Granted, that's fairly niche even though there's a strong community that still reveres the games. I never got into Ultima Online because I refuse to keep paying for a game after I bought it once. There's a spiritual sequel called Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, but I haven't been able to get into that, either. It's a MMPORG like Elder Scrolls Online, and those things just don't move me. For one, two dozen random yay-hoos with ridiculous names all jumping around trying to do the same quest as you are takes me out of the game. I'm not one for "emersion" but I do prefer my games self-contained.
Okay, that's good enough for now. We'll see how tomorrow goes tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be interesting.
Showing posts with label dungeon siege. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dungeon siege. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Well, good evening. Don't that sun look good going down?
I really don't understand why Sunday's Gibberish got more hits than Monday's News. I thought the News piece was good and the Gibberish was just okay. Granted, no one's telling me that either are good or bad and I'm just going off clicks, but still. I wonder what it is that's pulling in the eyes. At least with the WordPress site, it tells me where some come from and that's always interesting.
Ah well. Today's the second day of the Project and, if nothing else, I appreciate not having to scour the news websites looking for something to spark my imagination. I can just ramble on and talk about video games, which is what I'm going to do. I think the practice of sticking mostly to News benefited the piece, but we'll see how it all works out when I do tomorrow's News.
I guess before I get too deep into things, I should link up yesterday's gobbledygook. This was the latest update on COVID-19, since that's dominating the news and public's attention. Beyond everything else, we've moved into the "we must be willing to sacrifice for capitalism" stage of things, as a swath of talking heads, bloggers and people with podcasts said, hypothetically, it was okay if people got unnecessarily sick, perhaps even died because they went to work. The "strongest economy in history" is apparently so fragile that it can't just chill for a couple weeks until we figure out what's going on and what to do about it.
Skeptical then about the urgency of this claim, I did a little Googling and found out some interesting things concerning just how much wealth the very wealthy have. I know it won't matter to the Renfields of the world, but I truly do not really begrudge someone with millions or billions of dollars they'll never, ever spend. I don't have anything but contempt for them, but hey, don't hate the player, they say. It is what it is.
That all being said, their wealth - a little over 160 trillion dollars all told, and this is actual on-hand wealth - comes from other people doing most of the work. "But they take the risks," I hear you bleat. Yeah, and every time someone drives to work, they take the risk of being t-boned by a drunk driver where the very rich have bailouts and bankruptcy protections. Furthermore, most of these uber-wealthy make more in a day than most of the rest of us see in a lifetime. Some do it in an hour. Kylie Jenner makes the American median salary in two-and-a-half hours. That's a staggering stroke to wrap one's head around.
Anyway, read the Tumblr post and decide for yourself. I don't know if they get a blast fax or subliminal messages from Fox News, but the wingnut Twitter population is down to the ground with the idea of restaurant workers, retail workers and others they feel don't deserve a living wage for a 40-hour work week need to get back to it before some hedge fund loses less than 2% of its worth. I, for one, am not surprised and neither should anyone else. Americans - this may be worldwide, but us especially - have a certain reverence for the wealthy. We like the idea that just because a guy's got a shit-ton of money it not only makes him a super-genius in every other field beyond what he made bank in, but also makes him just a more worthy person. Some even think it means they deserve to be president when the only thing that really made them rich was being born to the right parents.
But I digress. I also got a wild hair and wrote a bit about the excellent and much under-appreciated '80s rock & roll group The Bus Boys. Inspired by the deep delve into the baffling wealth gap in our society, I was inspired to post some music that celebrated the working man. Mainly the Bus Boys and Merle Haggard, but I think that's good enough for anybody.
Okay, video games. I played more of Dungeon Siege as well as its two sequels. Honestly, I may like the second game better than the first. This story's a bit more interesting and there's a graphical upgrade. However it's apparently tougher, as I keep getting wiped out every time the challenge steps up and I have to keep throwing my party at the challenge like battering my head against a wall until it breaks. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know.
The third game, however, left me sort of cold. It looks nice and there seems to be a story worth telling, but I just didn't care. I usually get a taste of a game by either playing through the tutorial or getting past the game's first little bit, like after the Grey Wardens initially get wiped out in Dragon Age: Origins because that obviously evil looking guy did 'em dirty. If it gets me, I come back. This one, however, I was considering just dropping it before I got to that stopping place and deleted it off my hard drive once I did.
Another issue I had with it is a player is given four pre-made characters to go through the story. They all have their own backgrounds and there's no customization or even ambivalence to what they're trying to accomplish. I like a little grey area. In the first game, you're a farmer. In the second, you're a possible repentant mercenary. However, both are open ended enough that a player can add a little nuance to the character. The one in Two Worlds II is defined by his search for his sister and the guy in Divinity II is a raw recruit dealing with everything going to shit even before he's fully inducted.
I need to get back to Two Worlds II to finish it off, just like I need to do with Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2. However, I'll probably put a little more work into Divinity II or maybe give the first games of the Risen and Gothic series another shot. I still have a passel of XCOM-influenced turn-based strategy games to mess around with, too. I don't know how in the hell people with actual lives find the time to play as much as they seem to do.
What else is there. Snopes posted some job openings this morning. I applied to a couple but I doubt anything will come of it. I spent too much time out of the game and haven't done enough work since getting back into it for anyone seriously looking for labor to give a look. Or so in my mind, anyway, but I'm known for having laughably low self-esteem. I posted links to this and The News, since that's all I've got that's less than 15 years old. I think there are plenty of gems among the dross, but I do worry my flippant tone and potty mouth might turn some off. I can behave if I'm getting paid, is all I'm going to say about it.
Otherwise, I'm listening to Waylon Jennings' 1974 album The Ramblin' Man. I've got two tracks to go and once they're done, I'm done. For what it's worth, I don't think we've seen anything close to the end of the whole COVID-19 business and, what's more, it's going to develop into a much bigger hassle whether we "go back to work" or not. Doesn't really affect me either way, but it's interesting to watch how all this plays out from an outsider's perspective. Like I said above, it sort of stuns me that we are that beholden to the idea that unless we work ourselves to death for someone else's benefit and not enough to live on, the entire superstructure will eat itself within a week. If that's the case, maybe we should let it. Maybe make something new and better from the ashes.
Of course, that's an unhelpful thought, mainly because so many people whose backs are already against the wall would suffer the most for it while the very rich might have to give up one of their yachts. So, I don't have any answers or any good suggestions, even. Just questions, that's what I'm here for.
Ah well. Today's the second day of the Project and, if nothing else, I appreciate not having to scour the news websites looking for something to spark my imagination. I can just ramble on and talk about video games, which is what I'm going to do. I think the practice of sticking mostly to News benefited the piece, but we'll see how it all works out when I do tomorrow's News.
I guess before I get too deep into things, I should link up yesterday's gobbledygook. This was the latest update on COVID-19, since that's dominating the news and public's attention. Beyond everything else, we've moved into the "we must be willing to sacrifice for capitalism" stage of things, as a swath of talking heads, bloggers and people with podcasts said, hypothetically, it was okay if people got unnecessarily sick, perhaps even died because they went to work. The "strongest economy in history" is apparently so fragile that it can't just chill for a couple weeks until we figure out what's going on and what to do about it.
Skeptical then about the urgency of this claim, I did a little Googling and found out some interesting things concerning just how much wealth the very wealthy have. I know it won't matter to the Renfields of the world, but I truly do not really begrudge someone with millions or billions of dollars they'll never, ever spend. I don't have anything but contempt for them, but hey, don't hate the player, they say. It is what it is.
That all being said, their wealth - a little over 160 trillion dollars all told, and this is actual on-hand wealth - comes from other people doing most of the work. "But they take the risks," I hear you bleat. Yeah, and every time someone drives to work, they take the risk of being t-boned by a drunk driver where the very rich have bailouts and bankruptcy protections. Furthermore, most of these uber-wealthy make more in a day than most of the rest of us see in a lifetime. Some do it in an hour. Kylie Jenner makes the American median salary in two-and-a-half hours. That's a staggering stroke to wrap one's head around.
Anyway, read the Tumblr post and decide for yourself. I don't know if they get a blast fax or subliminal messages from Fox News, but the wingnut Twitter population is down to the ground with the idea of restaurant workers, retail workers and others they feel don't deserve a living wage for a 40-hour work week need to get back to it before some hedge fund loses less than 2% of its worth. I, for one, am not surprised and neither should anyone else. Americans - this may be worldwide, but us especially - have a certain reverence for the wealthy. We like the idea that just because a guy's got a shit-ton of money it not only makes him a super-genius in every other field beyond what he made bank in, but also makes him just a more worthy person. Some even think it means they deserve to be president when the only thing that really made them rich was being born to the right parents.
But I digress. I also got a wild hair and wrote a bit about the excellent and much under-appreciated '80s rock & roll group The Bus Boys. Inspired by the deep delve into the baffling wealth gap in our society, I was inspired to post some music that celebrated the working man. Mainly the Bus Boys and Merle Haggard, but I think that's good enough for anybody.
Okay, video games. I played more of Dungeon Siege as well as its two sequels. Honestly, I may like the second game better than the first. This story's a bit more interesting and there's a graphical upgrade. However it's apparently tougher, as I keep getting wiped out every time the challenge steps up and I have to keep throwing my party at the challenge like battering my head against a wall until it breaks. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know.
The third game, however, left me sort of cold. It looks nice and there seems to be a story worth telling, but I just didn't care. I usually get a taste of a game by either playing through the tutorial or getting past the game's first little bit, like after the Grey Wardens initially get wiped out in Dragon Age: Origins because that obviously evil looking guy did 'em dirty. If it gets me, I come back. This one, however, I was considering just dropping it before I got to that stopping place and deleted it off my hard drive once I did.
Another issue I had with it is a player is given four pre-made characters to go through the story. They all have their own backgrounds and there's no customization or even ambivalence to what they're trying to accomplish. I like a little grey area. In the first game, you're a farmer. In the second, you're a possible repentant mercenary. However, both are open ended enough that a player can add a little nuance to the character. The one in Two Worlds II is defined by his search for his sister and the guy in Divinity II is a raw recruit dealing with everything going to shit even before he's fully inducted.
I need to get back to Two Worlds II to finish it off, just like I need to do with Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2. However, I'll probably put a little more work into Divinity II or maybe give the first games of the Risen and Gothic series another shot. I still have a passel of XCOM-influenced turn-based strategy games to mess around with, too. I don't know how in the hell people with actual lives find the time to play as much as they seem to do.
What else is there. Snopes posted some job openings this morning. I applied to a couple but I doubt anything will come of it. I spent too much time out of the game and haven't done enough work since getting back into it for anyone seriously looking for labor to give a look. Or so in my mind, anyway, but I'm known for having laughably low self-esteem. I posted links to this and The News, since that's all I've got that's less than 15 years old. I think there are plenty of gems among the dross, but I do worry my flippant tone and potty mouth might turn some off. I can behave if I'm getting paid, is all I'm going to say about it.
Otherwise, I'm listening to Waylon Jennings' 1974 album The Ramblin' Man. I've got two tracks to go and once they're done, I'm done. For what it's worth, I don't think we've seen anything close to the end of the whole COVID-19 business and, what's more, it's going to develop into a much bigger hassle whether we "go back to work" or not. Doesn't really affect me either way, but it's interesting to watch how all this plays out from an outsider's perspective. Like I said above, it sort of stuns me that we are that beholden to the idea that unless we work ourselves to death for someone else's benefit and not enough to live on, the entire superstructure will eat itself within a week. If that's the case, maybe we should let it. Maybe make something new and better from the ashes.
Of course, that's an unhelpful thought, mainly because so many people whose backs are already against the wall would suffer the most for it while the very rich might have to give up one of their yachts. So, I don't have any answers or any good suggestions, even. Just questions, that's what I'm here for.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
What goes on in the dark will soon come to light.
I'm not seeing anything in the News that's exactly sitting my soul on fire, so we'll just fiddle around here until we run out our word count. I think we might give the Project a shot this week just for the hell of it. That's the fun thing about writing when no one's paying for it (or reading it, let's be honest), you can do pretty much what you damn well please.
I really don't understand why, but since moving straight to WordPress... the Blogger site still gets more hits. Who knows. Yeah, there's nothing pouring out today. It's raining out, so me and Otis can't take our constitutional. Bounce has a pretty nasty mark on his back where the hair's stripped off and there are some cuts. It's inflamed and hurts him, as well. I'm pretty sure it's from the tomcat that keeps coming up through the woods. They've fought before and Bounce is kind of a wimp. He's not a happy kitty right now but there's nothing I can do out here until tomorrow, and that's only if the veterinarian is open for business.
All right. The rain stopped so me, Otis and Coy took us a nice little constitutional and cleared my head up a bit. I think starting tomorrow we will implement the Project. Do a weekend round-up on Monday, another news piece on Wednesday, and cap it off with a Friday grab-bag. Plus, keep the Gibberish here. It won't be as easy as one thinks, because sometimes that logjam takes hours to unplug. Still, no one's paying me for this, so there you go.
We're now a week into this coronavirus "self distancing" business and it's interesting to see how it's all washing out. Just my two cents, so grain of salt, but I think life is coming to an equilibrium if we can figure out a way to make sure everyone who can't work doesn't starve to death and isn't thrown out on the street by their asshole landlord. Beyond that, yeah, it's smooth sailing right along, Matt.
Anyhow, I've been watching people deal with their new reality with great interest, given my own heavy thirst for Splendid Isolation. We're not quite a week into it and people are bouncing off the walls already. It's going to be hell on them if this goes on for months. For me, it's just an excellent excuse to cancel the very few social obligations I have, so I can't really relate. I'm trying to remember back when I was a bit more sociable and put my mind of those kids who're doing Spring Break and Saint Patrick's Day whatnots.
I guess I can understand it. I did plenty of dumb shit in my 20s that could've killed me and none of it involved a global pandemic I'm not saying it's a good or smart thing those kids are doing; I'm saying I understand. I wonder if these kids are at all plugged in politically. Most of the Gen Z kids that used to cross my radar (working in a kitchen, you get to know a lot of young folks) were generally hip and kept an eye on things even if it wasn't their sole focus. Of course, most of them were musicians or artists, or they were members of some group the Status Quo wants kept in a closet. LGBT folks, that sort of thing.
Okay, what else. Finally getting around to listening to Flogging Molly. On their Swagger album as we speak. It's... okay, I guess, sort of a natural progression of Celtic folk-punk from a band influenced by the Pogues. Not really my cup of meat anymore, but not unlistenable and I can see the appeal. Also got around to actually playing Dungeon Siege unvarnished last night. I bought it yonks ago so I could run the Ultima V: Lazarus. I've fooled around with that a bit - it's not any easier and it's full of bugs, but fun - but never really messed with the base game. Not bad, but I'm inclined to those High Fantasy sword-and-sorcery joints. I also have the two sequels and I'll try those tonight. They're all massively on sale for the rest of the month at Steam, like three bucks for the lot. You can't beat that with a stick.
I'm also finally getting deep into Sean Carroll's From Eternity To Here. I bought it not long after it came out, but that was about the time I quit reading. It was just too dense for me then. Now, I'm sort of surprised at how swiftly it's moving along. I like Dr. Carroll's take on science and think he does a good job explaining things, and I'm about ready to get into his latest book Something Deeply Hidden. That's his take on my latest fascination, Many-Worlds Theory. It's not only nice to be reading again, it's nice to be fascinated by various things again.
So enough of all that.
I really don't understand why, but since moving straight to WordPress... the Blogger site still gets more hits. Who knows. Yeah, there's nothing pouring out today. It's raining out, so me and Otis can't take our constitutional. Bounce has a pretty nasty mark on his back where the hair's stripped off and there are some cuts. It's inflamed and hurts him, as well. I'm pretty sure it's from the tomcat that keeps coming up through the woods. They've fought before and Bounce is kind of a wimp. He's not a happy kitty right now but there's nothing I can do out here until tomorrow, and that's only if the veterinarian is open for business.
All right. The rain stopped so me, Otis and Coy took us a nice little constitutional and cleared my head up a bit. I think starting tomorrow we will implement the Project. Do a weekend round-up on Monday, another news piece on Wednesday, and cap it off with a Friday grab-bag. Plus, keep the Gibberish here. It won't be as easy as one thinks, because sometimes that logjam takes hours to unplug. Still, no one's paying me for this, so there you go.
We're now a week into this coronavirus "self distancing" business and it's interesting to see how it's all washing out. Just my two cents, so grain of salt, but I think life is coming to an equilibrium if we can figure out a way to make sure everyone who can't work doesn't starve to death and isn't thrown out on the street by their asshole landlord. Beyond that, yeah, it's smooth sailing right along, Matt.
Anyhow, I've been watching people deal with their new reality with great interest, given my own heavy thirst for Splendid Isolation. We're not quite a week into it and people are bouncing off the walls already. It's going to be hell on them if this goes on for months. For me, it's just an excellent excuse to cancel the very few social obligations I have, so I can't really relate. I'm trying to remember back when I was a bit more sociable and put my mind of those kids who're doing Spring Break and Saint Patrick's Day whatnots.
I guess I can understand it. I did plenty of dumb shit in my 20s that could've killed me and none of it involved a global pandemic I'm not saying it's a good or smart thing those kids are doing; I'm saying I understand. I wonder if these kids are at all plugged in politically. Most of the Gen Z kids that used to cross my radar (working in a kitchen, you get to know a lot of young folks) were generally hip and kept an eye on things even if it wasn't their sole focus. Of course, most of them were musicians or artists, or they were members of some group the Status Quo wants kept in a closet. LGBT folks, that sort of thing.
Okay, what else. Finally getting around to listening to Flogging Molly. On their Swagger album as we speak. It's... okay, I guess, sort of a natural progression of Celtic folk-punk from a band influenced by the Pogues. Not really my cup of meat anymore, but not unlistenable and I can see the appeal. Also got around to actually playing Dungeon Siege unvarnished last night. I bought it yonks ago so I could run the Ultima V: Lazarus. I've fooled around with that a bit - it's not any easier and it's full of bugs, but fun - but never really messed with the base game. Not bad, but I'm inclined to those High Fantasy sword-and-sorcery joints. I also have the two sequels and I'll try those tonight. They're all massively on sale for the rest of the month at Steam, like three bucks for the lot. You can't beat that with a stick.
I'm also finally getting deep into Sean Carroll's From Eternity To Here. I bought it not long after it came out, but that was about the time I quit reading. It was just too dense for me then. Now, I'm sort of surprised at how swiftly it's moving along. I like Dr. Carroll's take on science and think he does a good job explaining things, and I'm about ready to get into his latest book Something Deeply Hidden. That's his take on my latest fascination, Many-Worlds Theory. It's not only nice to be reading again, it's nice to be fascinated by various things again.
So enough of all that.
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