The Tratz Blog

Canipre? More like Canipoop.

2013-05-13T01:58:00.002-07:00

I made it a rule in the last year or so that I wouldn't vent in public forums anymore when I got tired of being inundated with negativity and personal drama on websites like Facebook. However, a news article caught my eye that really "grinds my gears" and I couldn't help myself.

Canipre (Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement) is a very aggressive infringement investigation service based out of Montreal. They collect money from big entertainment rights holders with the promise that their evidence will sway the courts in their favor. They also offer cease and desist (or as they like to jest "takedown") services. Now armed with recent changes to the Canadian bill C-11, it's their hope that they will bring the same kind of bullshit that happens in the US courtrooms up to Canada.

Both the news article and Canipre's website are laden with their overall demonizing point of view and nonsense rhetoric that seems to target the personal user such as myself and 95% of people who still read this blog. Allow me to share a few crap encrusted gems:

"If they keep thinking it's free, when do you go out of business?"
"Until we change perception we will never change behaviors."
"Your audience isn't rational, have you put systems in place?"

...and my personal favorite:

"It's an arms race and your bottom line is the target"

First of all, piracy is an abused term. About 40 years ago the original term for "our behavior" was called bootlegging. Bootlegging spread the word about artists and performers and promoted the industry for free. Bootlegging today is on such a rapid scale that anyone, anywhere can access media then go out of their way to show their way to show their appreciation for the arts and the hard work involved. I personally own and can account for all 1400 songs in my libary and spend hundreds of dollars a year on movie tickets, sporting events and music. Why? Because people share. There's no evidence to truly prove that "piracy" hurts the industry or their multi-billion dollar lobbying benefactors. If that isn't rational, I don't know what is. It seems to me that Canipre is well versed in advertising fear, much like our friends in the industry down south.

The most discouraging part of all of this is that for the most part, the people with the money are getting their way. Some of you may have heard of a little bill called C-11 here in Canada which has been enacted to modernize copyright law. Empowered with it, big entertainment rights holders and shitheads like Canipre can work together to see fines that are worth up to $5000 for downloading content for personal use. There are crimes in Canada that are in place to prevent injury and death that have fines 10 times lower than that. Heaven forbid I acquire a bootlegged copy of the next Justin Beiber album because something that's worth a laughable $20 could cost me a down payment on a new vehicle...but if I'm pulled over for drinking and driving (endangering human life) I might lose my license and get fined somewhere under $1000. I really doubt anyone's intellectual rights are the priority here.

On a similar note, my Internet Service Provider (ISP) was forced by law last month to pass on email warnings (or threats as I prefer) from entertainment companies to customers whose IP traffic is found in association with copyright infringing behavior. This I find particularly irritating because aside from maybe DVD and a CD sales, the content is already paid for by advertising on television, radio and Internet; these are ads that we see and hear everywhere regardless of if we've downloaded the content or not. DVD and CD sales will decline anyway since services like iTunes, Netflix and related streaming service providers exist at a respectable cost. From my point of view, by subscribing to the Internet, you're paying for content delivery and not the content itself and shouldn't be regarded all that differently from a television subscription. I'm sure some of us wouldn't mind paying a little bit extra with their subscription to do away with this nonsense altogether if there is any real hurt to be had. After all, we're already taxed on several goods for the potential risk of copyright infringement in Canada.

In closing, I'll leave you with a link to a comic that I find is relevant to this post and that I can definitely relate to.

Enjoy.

State of my Game

2013-01-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

While gaming has dropped low on my list of recreational priorities, I still make time for one. EVE. A lot has happened since my last update (which was more than a year ago). I will try to cover several months of events in brief.

We last left off when my corporation was operating in a C2 wormhole system. We had a few hairy situations that drove us to seek a stronger alliance. At the same time, we had hoped to expand our operations. Our objectives drove us to join a quaint little alliance, Legio Astartes Arcanum, in the armpit of the Catch region of null security space. The region was owned in general by Against All Authorities (AAA) and Legio, in a lot of ways, was their pet alliance.

Over the course of about 9 months we experienced an influx of successful recruitment, the opportunities that null security space brings and the horror show that is alliance bureaucracy. Nevertheless, many of us (myself included) earned our wings in fleet combat. Especially when the War of Delve 2012 took off. Dozens of smaller powerblocks hoarded together in the southern reaches of null sec and formed the Southern Coalition (SoCo) in order to ward off and defend Delve from invaders from Test, Goonswarm and Pandemic Legion and several other members from the Honey Badger Coalition. Delve 2012 turned out to be the biggest war of the summer.

Ultimately the invaders prevailed and pushed much of SoCo uncomfortably out of their homes. This would be an ill omen that ultimately lead to the CFC (Cluster Fuck Coalition which consists of Test, Goonswarm and Pandemic Legion) to make a hard push into the heart of SoCo's support, AAA Space. At first, the outlook was good for us. Then, steadily over time, Test did what they do best. They swarmed and recruited members of AAA with propaganda. I'm not really certain of the details, but something related to the invasion trickled it's way through the leadership ladder and caused discord in AAA. In the end, our corporation stayed with Legio until the bitter end whereupon we and AAA got ejected (pushed out) of null security space.

At the current time, AAA is a bit broken. Due to our alliance's ridged and inflexible leadership and the loss of our sovereignty, we decided to step back as a corporation and re-evaluate our own priorities. I unfortunately just wasn't putting the time into the game that is required to appease the leaders of the alliance while they hopelessly slammed their heads against a wall repeatedly in low security space. So we returned to wormhole and high security space operations and upgraded our wormhole system. To be perfectly honest...things are very slow and I can't see where my corporation will be in another year.

I miss the thrill of fleet combat and I feel a bit tied down. During my stay in null sec I had effectively acquired a fortune that doesn't really amount to much right now. I'm not willing to hand off my corporation, but I'm not prepared to make the time investment required to build us up. Having a life is just too wonderful. Maybe once I feel confident in my new wormhole directors I can splinter off and do other things for a few weeks while holding the corporation down.

Dragging the Cat In

2013-01-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

August was a long time ago and it was a month of very big changes. My last post happened right in the middle of them and my lifestyle adjustments left my blog in kind of a weird place. This blog was never intended for my personal life but it's affected by it. Nonetheless, when it came time to renew my domain in October, I renewed it in spite of my being busy.

So what the hell happened?

Well, I got tired, for starters. Tired of musing over what used to be and more importantly, what I used to be. I was overweight, had anxiety challenges that were becoming serious and I am fairly sure I was borderline diabetic. Rather than pursuing the denial I had become so comfortable with, I did the sensible thing for once and took control.

I dealt with my personal challenges that caused my anxiety. I got in shape. I put my real priorities first. Over the last 5 months I'm almost 40 lbs lighter and very much back on track. One side effect of my lifestyle changes is that I game a lot less. It's challenging to pump out regular game content when you play less than 10 hours a week. There will likely be some relatively big changes to this blog as a result. There will be some articles that are like my older content, but for the most part, it's time for a reboot. Tratz Blog has been primarily a gaming and tech blog but it was truly intended for whatever interests me, whenever it interests me. Thanks to everyone who has supported me and is still waiting around for more content.

Vanguard F2P First Impressions

2012-08-26T20:40:00.001-07:00

A co-worker of mine approached me after my Star Trek Online revisit and requested that I check out Vanguard, a now free to play MMORPG. Free isn't really a price I can argue with so I downloaded the game and played it for a couple of hours.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a fantasy based massively multiplayer online RPG that came out in 2006. I honestly had not heard of it until I was asked to play the game. A quick bit of Google research shows that the game started out with a decent bang but dwindled into a rather small player base.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) runs the game as well, so I don't have a lot of confidence in the game from the get-go. Unfortunately SOE has a reputation for failing to deliver on MMORPGs. The most recent example of failure is Star Wars Galaxies. While I like to be optimistic about most free to play games, I often coin the term "failed to pay" instead. Especially when a game goes free due to a failing subscriber base and in the hopes that the server population gets pumped up with new microtransaction spenders.

>Speaking of which, the game follows the typical free to play model where you have free access, premium ($15 a month) access with more perks and a myriad of cash store items that do not exclude performance enhancing gear.

In terms of character creation you have your choice of the standard fantasy classes. You may also choose from a rather impressive selection of races, some of which are pretty unconventional. Once I got into the new player zone (Isle of Dawn) I was met with a fairly well put together environment. The world and the characters in it are open and generally well proportioned. Overall I'd say the aesthetic of the game is somewhere between World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online in quality. As any game more than 5 years old should, Vanguard plays on minimal resources. When I got into the game, I couldn't help but feel that some things were amiss.

The combat animations feel a little flat and half-hearted. There is an apparent lack of Foley sounds for things like swinging, footsteps and running. Creatures or non-player characters in the game produce very little noise beyond the odd scripted statement or battle cry. It's almost as if playing characters make up the majority of the sounds. Particle and environmental effects are also clearly dated. I took some time to play during the weekend and the server lag was painfully obvious. Corpses were mysteriously floating across and through the terrain, the server wasn't responding to action bar commands and other players were complaining about latency. All of these challenges made it really hard for me to feel immersed in the game.

At its core, Vanguard did not seem to offer anything special in the short time that it held my attention, either. The game may be fine for anyone who really likes fantasy MMOs but do not want to pay for one. Since I've already played World of Warcraft, I found myself droning along in Vanguard while grinding away at the standard fetch and kill quests. It only took around six quests for me to feel bored with the lack of immersion and gameplay originality.

Admittedly, I may be a tad biased. I may also be spoiled a bit by more recent games. In my defense, not too many fantasy MMORPGs have innovated since World of Warcraft. Taste is always a matter of preference and unfortunately, Warcraft-Esque gaming is not for me. Especially when a game 6 years old like Vanguard lacks polish by comparison to the surviving competitors of yesteryear.

Star Trek Online Revisit

2012-08-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago I tried out Star Trek Online (STO) for about 3 months and submitted a review. The game was in its infancy and it had a lot of potential. I left the game shortly after making tratzblog.com. This was mainly due to the fact that STO had very little to offer once you hit the level cap.

Star Trek Online has suffered a similar fate to other less successful MMORPG games - it went free to play. I glanced over the terms of the free to play version of the game and realized that it was very open. You almost get access to everything except for the mission creator toolkit. Why not spend a little time checking out the new features in the game?

After bumbling over the interface and initial confusion of trying to get re-acquainted with the game on my top level Starfleet character I decided to try a fresh start instead. The last time I enjoyed the game there was virtually no Klingon Defence Force (KDF) content. I was curious to see if Cryptic was listening to their subscribers.

It turns out they did to some degree. The KDF now has two "seasons" of episodic gameplay that are unique. Along with original content, the KDF now share 4 other seasons of content with Starfleet. I am a little irked by how the KDF obligatorily align with Starfleet for four seasons. The two factions are supposed to be at war and yet there is this overwhelming cuddly sense of co-operation. Nevertheless, having content as opposed to not is a huge improvement on what was there for the KDF a couple of years ago.

The majority of the content is now streamlined in one interface. You can easily navigate to any episode of content and fast travel to the mission. You may also queue up for a team-based activity. Team based activities vary from end game matchmaking teams to PvP arenas. If you don't like playing with strangers, you can queue up as a team. In terms of PvP, arenas are all that are there in the game. There is no open world PvP.

>This brings me to one of my biggest pain-points in the game. If there's one thing EVE Online has taught me, it's that the best PvP experiences happen in the open world and can happen at any time. Feeling limited to organized arenas makes the "war" between the KDF and Starfleet feel shallow and trite. Especially when we can't touch each other in open space and are literally forced to cuddle and help each other in every single PvE aspect of the game. The fights are meaningless, the rewards are superficial at best and there is no consequence for losing.

In addition to boring cookie cutter arena circle jerks, two other pain-points in the game for me are scaling and how the ships play out in the long run. I look back to my original article on the game and realize how much my perspective on the game has changed. I was so pumped up on the game when I wrote the original article that I failed to notice the obvious. Planets are only 80-200 kilometers in diameter. Moons are within spitting distance of planets. Suns that should be enormous enough to be seen from light-years away almost fit within the confines of your screen as you're crashing into them. There have been a few instances where I've seen a crashed or landed bird of prey ships that couldn't accommodate a crew compliment of 2, nevermind 40-50.

As far as ships are concerned, more than 75% of the playable ones become obsolete in the long run. When you've played both the KDF and the Starfleet side of the game to the maximum level you're stuck with a small handful of ships that are even worth flying with your level 50 friends. Perhaps EVE has spoiled me with thousands of useful ships regardless of what stage of the game you have reached.

Like most other free to play games, STO relies on micro-transactions. The very best ships in the game are only available for real money. Beyond that, the other items in the micro- transaction store are little more than aesthetic in value. The end game ships that you can get for free aren't too inferior to the twenty dollars you'd have to spend to get the best vessels in the game. Although "pay to win" cash store items drive me absolutely bonkers, I understand the game needs to survive somehow.

On a lighter note, minor aspects of the game have improved. The interface has been improved slightly. Some of the features that were added to the game include "over the shoulder" shooter mode for ground combat, fast travel between sectors and to missions, player made content and player owned stations. Duty officer tasks were added to put your crew to work while you're logged off and earn rewards over time. There have also been a number of subtle aesthetic improvements as well.

The end game is still lacking a fair bit but there is a community to make up for the inevitable content wall that all top level players hit. STO is still a very fun game to play. Above all else, the price to play is way more than fair. There are few other free to play games out there that will offer so much and ask for so little in return.

Diablo III in Short

2012-07-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to get to this one. This is mostly because I'm well aware of the fact that the game's been written about hundreds of times already. I sometimes wonder if there's much point in creating exposure for something that's already hysterically known by the masses of enthralled gamers. However, in the event that you still want to know what I think of the game, I'll write regardless.

Diablo III has been a long anticipated game for many people, myself included. I can remember investing hundreds of hours running amuck in Diablo I and II. They captured my imagination and provoked excessive sessions of gameplay that often made my friends and family question the sanity of my hobby. Blizzard isn't a developer that tends to disappoint. Having said that I rushed out and pre-ordered my copy of Diablo III before it was released.

All jokes and launch bumps aside, Diablo III at its core is exactly what you would expect it to be - a modernized Diablo II in many ways. It's fully 3D, has many new classes and an integrated auction house and multiplayer system. One drawback to these features (and the DRM nature of the game as well) is that you have to have an Internet connection and a Battlenet account to play. Granted, I bought my copy of Diablo II a couple of times (since I lost my first copy and wanted to play online), I know full well that Diablo II was stolen by dozens of people in my personal life. It seems like a necessary evil to add so many layers of authentication (CD key, Internet connection and Battlenet). Then again, what if my Internet is slow, or down? Lag is well known in Diablo III for killing Hardcore characters (characters that are only allowed to die once and then they're dead for good).

Much like the previous games, Diablo III is very gear dependant. Once you hit the final stage of the game (Inferno difficulty), how you choose your gear is very important. There are some statistics that are worth a lot of gold (or money) in gear. Therein lies the grind of Diablo III - finding and buying your gear. This wouldn't be so much of a problem (in my opinion) if the game had more than 15 hours of gameplay altogether across 4 acts. There's just not enough content in the game to keep a person inspired. There will always be people who love the game no matter what and they will click until their fingers turn black and fall off. For me (and a lot of my friends) the grind is getting very tiresome. To make matters more annoying, your gear will never be as good as the next guy with a giant pocketbook. The real money auction house currently sells the best gear (sold by players) for around $20-$250 a pop.

There are plenty of perks to be had from sticking to the game, however. If you manage to overcome the gambit of gearing up for Act IV Inferno, practice and generally "no-life" the game, then there is money to be had. The game is still at a high point right now. I'm not sure how long the astronomical pricepoint on top dollar gear will last. I've seen the market already start to deflate a bit. Blizzard gets a 15% cut on every sale and if you cash out to Paypal then they get a cut as well. Nonetheless, what other game gives you the potential to earn hundreds of dollars if you really stick to it? My modest personal best is $7 but some of my friends have gotten items worth around the $50-$120 range.

There are many other small aspects to the game that have changed when you compare it to its predecessor. The art direction is still very dark, gothic and gloomy but clearly inspired by World of Warcraft. It's almost like they took the WoW engine, made the proportions better, the resolutions higher and gave us a bird's eye view instead of second person view. Most of the details in the game are very small, so its hard to judge the "WoW-ish" style of the engine. Talent trees are also no longer a part of the game. Instead you have several skills and action bar slots that you unlock as you progress through the game. The higher you get in level, the more skills you have and the more buttons you have to use them with (up to a maximum of 6 skills in a build on your action bar). You also get 3 passive skills in addition to actively used skills in total. All of your active (action bar) skills can be further augmented by "runes" which are also unlocked as you level up.

What this skill system creates is an easy to use and versatile palette of abilities that can be changed, switched out and swapped at any time. The only limit you have are the number of passive and active skill slots. Runes can drastically change how your active skills work, therefore, there is a ton of variety and room for theory crafting in the character skill system. Personally, I prefer this over being locked down to a irreversible talent tree.

While the story is very short it's still very entertaining. Some of the plot feels forced (Diablo and Mephisto were supposed to be destroyed in Diablo II) to make the story work but that's easy to overlook given how much fun the game is. PvP is still on the backburner as well as there is no PvP content. Criticisms aside, you couldn't pry my copy of the game from me cold, dead fingertips. It's also the digital age so we can expect more content and expansions. I look forward to reflecting on that content after it arrives.

Machariel - Ratting Monster

2012-06-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while, blog. Hasn’t it? Well, I’ll just insert the cliche “I’m back” message here and get it over with. Needless to say, I’ve been distracted…mostly with playing the things I enjoy instead of writing about them. I also had some minor technical challenges. Anyway, enough about me! Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this article – EVE Online.

Since my last update regarding my EVE journey, a lot has changed. We’ve moved into null security space where there is no law and players battle for control over sovereign space. In our new alliance many of our members have become wealthy. Others have had their first taste of meaningful PvP. I’ve had a taste of both. I’ve participated in home system defense, roams and remote deployments to assist friendly corporations and alliances. The whole experience has been really, really fascinating.

One of the mysteries of null security for people who prefer to dwell in secured space is “how do you make so much ISK (currency) in null sec.” Well to be honest…there’s no one golden egg that will make you a billionaire in a short amount of time. There are, however, many interesting ways to make ISK. What’s really cool about Null sec is that those methods are all really localized. Thus you never have to go far to find a way to make some ISK unless you’re trading (which is really quite profitable if you know how to use remote marketplaces). One of the most common ways to make ISK is ratting.

Ratting is the practice of killing NPC pirates for bounties and rare loot. This can be accomplished by cruising around asteroid belts, farming anomalies (easy to find hidden pockets), or scanning down complexes and cosmic signatures (well hidden pockets). If you’ve got a well fitted assault cruiser, strategic cruiser or battleship class ship, ratting is easy in anomalies. For belts, battlecruisers are good enough. If you’re lucky in the belts, you’ll get a faction spawn or hauler spawn that will drop valuable loot or minerals. Rare loot is often valued between 10 million ISK to 900 million. Grinding anomalies will often net you 20-60 million ISK per hour not including salvage.

Some tips for ratting include knowing your NPCS and what damage they deal and what damage they’re vulnerable to. You’ll want to bias your tank and damage dealing heavily in your favor. All the rats are the same from region to region, so unlike high security missions, you’ll never really have to refit your tank and swap ammo types.

For ratting, I recently upgraded from my Tengu to a Machariel. The main reason for this change was to ramp up how quickly I complete hub type anomalies. For EVE readers, this is my fit:

[Machariel, Sansha Ratting]

800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
[Empty High slot]

Pith B-Type EM Ward Field
Pith B-Type Thermic Dissipation Field
Pith B-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Heavy Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Experimental 100MN Afterburner I

Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Damage Control II

Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Large Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I

The fit essentially gives me 808 DPS vs Sansha rats and an 800 hp/s shield recharge verses Sansha damage types. This is overkill for running hubs. The tank is limited to cap boosters, which makes longer anomalies a challenge…but when you make 14 million every 10-15 minutes in bounties alone, it’s hard to complain. I’m still going to use my Tengu or Maelstrom for harder to tank harder complexes with friends since the tank is more reliable, but for solo or team anomalies (Havens or harder,) this Machariel fit is pretty bad ass.

Duke Nukem Forever

2012-02-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Duke Nukem Forever went on sale in Steam this week and I was able to snag the game and all of the DLC for just under $10. I always loved the series in my teens. Despite how awful the Duke Nukem games have been since Duke 3D and the horrible reviews Forever received, I decided the $10 was worth the risk. After being sucked into the game for at least two hours I realized that I should have never taken the reviews too seriously.

It turns out that Duke Nukem Forever is every bit of Duke Nukem I had hoped it would be and perhaps a little bit more. I would even be so bold as to say review critics and the general population of first person shooter aficionados judged the game way too harshly. I suppose due to the length of time it took for the game to finally release (something like 12 years) people could have expected something bleeding edge. I will give the critics so much as to say that it's not "next generation" quality. It is pretty damned close, however. The quality is more than adequate for what it is and the engine runs really well on my modest desktop. Perhaps people have been spoiled by the current bleeding edge market and have lost touch with games that do not take themselves too seriously. It's either that or people just don remember the original Duke 3D game well enough to recall what it was actually like front to back.

The game takes place 12 years after Duke's last major adventure. As the story unfolds you discover that Duke is now a celebrity and the Cycloids are visiting Earth for the first time in over a decade. Though they alledgedly come in peace, the Cycloid's ruse is inevitably blown when the visciously attack Duke's place of residence. Duke is thereby thrusted into another crazy alien blasting booby filled adventure.

While progressing through the game you can expect to find a myriad of pop culture references, crass (and sometimes downright rude) humor, babes and a familiar arsenal of weaponry. The large opposition of Cycloid enemies are easily identifiable with the baddies in Duke Nukem 3D. Granted, the use of the same guns of goons we've seen in the past is fairly unoriginal. The nostalgic value of mowing down pig cops with your ripper, however, is still extremely satisfying. To suppliment the classic elements in the game there are a number of new features such as the ego bar, minigames and (more) puzzles.

Your ego bar is essentially a shield. The more you get hurt, the more your ego is bruised. If you get pelted too many times without any ego left to sustain you then you will be defeated. Like most newer shooters, if you take cover for a long enough period of time your ego will replenish. Your maximum ego can be increased by finding easter eggs (most of which are amusing) or doing well in some of the minigames. Duke gets a fair bit of max ego for boss victories as well. Some of the more classic powerups are included in Duke Nukem Forever as well. These powerups include your night vision (built right into your sunglasses), holoduke, steroids and beer.

While the campaign is challenging enough, it can feel a bit too easy at times. Most of the puzzles make sense but a few of them feel a bit too obligatory. If you beat the campaign, however, you get to unlock an entire library of development photos, videos and even a nifty little timeline. I was actually really surprised to see that there wasn't really one game developed over the decade of production, but rather, several nearly complete games that were scrapped and started over. Overall the game is fairly action packed and filled with many cool, sexy, funny and epic situations. While this game is definitely not for everyone I highly recommend Duke fans give Duke Nukem Forever a try.

Black Prophecy

2012-01-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

**Black Prophecy was terminated as of September 2012...but if you want to know what it was, keep reading**

Black Prophecy is an action packed space combat simulator and MMORPG hybrid by Reakktor Media GmbH. The game came out in March 2011 and it's my opinion it has received less exposure than it deserves.

The game is set in the distant future where two superior races, the Genide and the Tyi, vie for control of the known Galaxy. In their exploits for conquest they uncover a dangerous unknown alien race that threatens to overpower humanity as a whole. Story telling in Black Prophecy is very good and it features an enjoyable plot, interesting characters, voice acting and cutscenes for major missions. Black Prophecy also has stunning visuals and an excellent soundtrack by Tilman Sillescu. Overall, the game has a very nice high quality production feel to it.

Character creation is on par with bleeding edge games like EVE Online but unlike most other space MMORPGs, the ships are customizable to a degree. Every time you swap out a piece of equipment on the ship, be it a wing or a new set of engines, the look of the vessel changed a little bit. You can even use the game's crafting system to create superior (and sweet looking) gear and paint to further tailor your engine of destruction. What you can equip on your ship, however, is limited to your skill level.

As you level up in the game you earn skill points that are allocated into various ship skills (ship, shields, energy, hull, engines and tactics). Each skill determines the limit of quality for its corresponding module type. The ship skill in particular is extremely important as it dictates the maximum level of skill you can pump up the other skills to. Tactics is unique because it grants you "tactics points" to spend on flight manouvers. To execute tactics you need to quickly carry out key combinations on the W,A,S,D keys while in combat and perform tricks and evasive manouvers.

Skills can customize your gameplay experience as they correlate with different types of weapons and resistances. If you prefer hot lasers or lighting rods, energy is the skill for you. Mechanics grant you access to projectile weapons and explosives allow missles & grenades. Shield and hull change up what kind of damage your vessel is adept to resisting. Game mechanics like these that take away from the "may the man with the biggest gun wins" aspect of MMOs and gives it a more "rock, paper, scissors" effect. Being able to pick you targets carefully is important as the wiser pilot knows who to gun for first based on their own capabilities.

On the note of gunning things down, content (both PvE and PvP) is delivered in several ways. Aside from epic story arcs via contacts in game, there are repeatable and scalable PvE missions at every station. This leaves you free to fly with friends or alone. PvP is delivered in warzones and in public zones outside of stations. If your faction is able to secure a warzone then all of their members get an experience boost. Contact missions often send you into public zones where open world PvP between factions occurs often so it's wise to stay on your toes.

I naturally have a bias for space and science fiction themed games and MMOs so it's no doubt this game gets my recommendation. If you like fast pace action with that RPG hook, this game is definitely for you. I personally hadn't sunk my teeth into a good space combat sim since the late Star Wars Galaxy's "Jump to Light Speed" expansion (rest in peace, SWG). A good flight stick definitely adds to the experience but it is very playable with a gamepad or keyboard and mouse. My only complaint is a small number of "pay to win" items in the microtransaction store. Beyond that, Black Prophecy delivers above and beyond my free to play expectations. There's no purchase cost or monthly subscription. Enjoy!

SOPA and Protect IP - A Rant

2011-12-30T04:18:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last month then you've probably heard of SOPA and PROTECT IP. If you haven't, the short version is they are pieces of ~~crap~~ legislation that will allow large copyright holders to block and take down content in the United States over the Internet.

PROTECT IP (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011) will block traffic to "copyright infringing content" on the DNS level by re-routing it to a page from our government parents. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is an act that will empower the corporations to have content blocked/pulled on a whim prior to a court decision even being made. Shoot first, ask questions later? Let the rant begin.

In case anyone's forgotten, we're in a recession. During which the entertainment industry is still prospering. The corporate entities that are pushing for these bills are making more than their fair share already. Blockbuster stars and artists are really well paid. They're not starving. When the cassette tape and burnable CD came out corporations panicked and were proven wrong twice. Valve's own Managing Director Gabe Newell said in an interview with The Cambridge Student, "Piracy is almost always service problem [...] Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company." This basically means commercial entities need to deliver their product over a better medium. This will make "stealing" seem inconvenient and more risky. Apple does really well with this using iTunes, Valve does with Steam and Netflix does it with a cross platform/console service. It's groups like the Universal Music Group (UMG) who are kicking and screaming like infants in suits to defend an outdated business model.

Speaking of which, UMG is already known for abusing their "right" to censor videos in mediums like YouTube by using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). After branding MegaUpload as a "rogue pirate sharing site" and seizing their domain, UMG proceeded to pull down a support video, made by popular artists, under the claim that it broke copyright laws. In truth, UMG owned none of the content in question. Prior to becoming a YouTube partner myself I used Daft Punk as background music for a video. It was pulled for copyright. Most readers have seen my videos and know that you can barely hear the music over the sound of the other content and my rambling voice.

This goes beyond YouTube as well. A good friend of mine made an artistic video (embedded above) with music he purchased in the background and it was yanked off of facebook with no question of whether or not it was fair use. No one wants to be the target of big scary UMG's copyright court battle. It seems to me you own everything you buy unless it's from the entertainment industry. You do not have the freedom of "fair use" or "possession" over the content that you buy and that is bullshit by itself without US Congress trampling all over whatever freedom we have left for creativity. As a good consumer who buys all of his content despite being able to pirate it at any time, I should have more creative freedom with the content. But like everyone else, my attempts to pirate media are automatically assumed and my content gets pulled down. If SOPA and PIPA/PROTECT IP get passed you can forget about uploading anything that remotely resembles copyrighted material.

To boot, things like PROTECT IP/SOPA will not stop piracy. PROTECT IP Only works on a DNS level. Know the IP of your favorite website? No problem! It's not like rogue DNS won't become popular in the US, either. Certainly not when SOPA will firewall a website just for hosting user posted links to "potentially copyrighted" material. It also sets a shitty precedent for laws to be made/amended elsewhere if one of the biggest Internet leaders starts acting like China (no offense Chinese readers!). Canadians are next door and Harper currently has the majority. I personally feel that our Conservative government in the great white North might just align with the US on this if they were pressured enough by global media corporations. That, however, is a different rant for another time. Included in this blog is an embed of Cynical Brit's rant on SOPA/PIPA. He's also got some great petitions for you American readers to sign - please take a few moments to look them over. And as always - please inform your friends. The more awareness on a global scale the better.>

Let the people set the precedent - NOT the corporations.

Cynical Brit's list of petitions and informative articles:

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ngd4r/i_work_in_news_this_is_how_you_stop_sopa/

http://tinyurl.com/techdirtsopa

http://reddit.com/r/sopa

http://www.americancensorship.org

http://tinyurl.com/universalcensors

http://tinyurl.com/writetocongress

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet

http://t.co/vIhyPU9z

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/12/sopa-vote-delayed/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/free-speechs-weak-links-under-internet-blacklist-bills

EvE Online: A Year in Review

2011-10-28T00:16:00.001-07:00

I checked my employment history in EVE and realized that it's been just over a year since I started playing. Now would be a good time to reflect on the game and share some of my experiences. It may also explain why I've barely written in nearly 3 months! So, here goes.

My journey into New Eden started with boredom. I had been playing Star Trek Online (STO) and I had already capped out a character in roughly 3 months. It didn't take much effort. All it required was a moderate pace and the brainpower of a 12 year old to figure the mechanics out and "beat" the game. While working late hours (as it is my preference) it was hard to get any interaction with other players. At the time I roleplaying and storytelling was important to me so I felt a little jaded.

Moving forward! An acquaintance of mine, Saju, was looking to invite people to EvE. Because all I could think of doing with STO was browse my fleet's forum, I figured "why not?" I took him up on his offer despite having tried it 6 years prior to that time. The game didn't catch me then but I was curious regardless. From what I could tell the gameplay mechanics hadn't changed too much. The interface was still very intense, the game barely offered any semblance of direction. I was completely lost. If it weren’t for Saju and his veteran friends in the Department of Defense (DEP, an EvE corporation) I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.

From there my career started as most first time players do - in industry. Mine in particular was mining. I didn't understand why, but the thought of being able to casually extract ores from belts felt easy going and relaxing. Best of all, it made easy currency for someone who wasn't skilled enough to tackle more profitable ventures. Oriona from DEP donated my first mining barge and helped me set proper goals for productive mining.

The next few months feel kind of like a blur of events. I moved quickly from mining, to ice harvesting (used to collect valuable fuels), exploration and eventually proper combat. DEP set out to null security space (lawless space) to join a null alliance. Because it didn't interest me I joined a mining buddy, Liam Kagan, in forming our first corporation together with a close friend of his. The leadership collapsed and we moved on to create our own corporation, Kagan-Kincaid Enterprises.

Leadership makes the game very, very busy. Recruiting, encouraging, organizing and giving people a sense of purpose and direction is challenging. I was fortunate to find friends and support from outside of the game willing to come join our corporation in game which is always good for morale. At this point I have been co-running the effort for 3 months (about as long as this blog has been neglected). We took our first steps into a wormhole just over a month ago with our allies and succeeded.

Wormholes are a tricky thing. They're separate from regular space. The only way in is to use probes to scan down the entrance. Entrances are not static. They collapse either after a certain length of time or a certain amount of mass passes through it. On the other side there is a lawless system filled with forgotten Sleeper AI drones (which are very dangerous and profitable) and resources only found in null sec space otherwise. Some wormhole systems have exits you can count on every day, others do not. No two wormholes are the same.

We couldn't stay in our allies' wormhole forever. Their claim belonged to them and we needed to find our own. There were a few failings along the way where we failed to setup a station between wormholes and took on a particular wormhole system that was too big for us to chew. Eventually we found a home with a regular low security exit. This meant frequent ways out that were safe-ish but didn't attract too many unwanted guests.

Along the way to where I am now I had many interesting experiences. I've made friends, seen them leave, had them turn out to be traitors. I have weathered the rigors and wrath of cold-hearted players who play the game to enjoy their evil sides. I have most certainly lost more ships than I have killed because I care (arguably too much) for people. I have made billions but lost nearly so much as well. Now that I am a more tenured player and starting to fully understand the more advanced concepts of the game, things are certainly becoming very interesting. Despite EvE being for the most part fairly cruel, it has a surprisingly engaging community.

For instance, I didn't make (and hold onto) my first billion doing anything in the game. I actually made it by winning a radio contest through EvE Radio (a fairly legit radio station with player DJs). After a year in reflection, I'm fairly sure I'm going to stay a while longer. Building a station in the depths of unknown space where anything can happen feels pretty exciting.

I'm looking forward to sharing some more information regarding my excursions. Hopefully it won't sound too redunant. I'll try and keep things here interesting!

Have some pretty pictures until next time.

Shat Trekk'd Photoshopping

2011-08-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Another Shat Trek update for you folks to take in. I've got some promotional posters I'd like to share. David and Jack are hard at work producing more footage for the first episode. Check them out or Jojo Kracko will break my kneecaps!

Introducing: Shat Trek!

2011-07-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

I've got a soft spot for independent work and science fiction. Star Trek, as some of you may know, is no exception to the rule. Additionally I can have a very crude sense of humor. Put these things together and what do you get? Shat Trek.

Shat Trek is essentially an independent stop animation project put together by Logan 5 Pictures. Logan 5 consists of two of my friends from work, Jack Hutzler and Dave MacMurchie. The three of us sat down yesterday to discuss exactly what Shat Trek is and why they're making it.

"It all began in Christmas, 1977," Jack pondered while recalling his initial inspiration for the project. "Captain Kirk is my hero, I guess. Everyone has a hero; Captain Kirk is mine [...] He is an icon, and so is Star Trek." Jack told me about how his fascination with Star Trek spurned into a hobby of collecting action figures. Just collecting figures wasn't enough; he wanted to find a creative outlet for his Star Trek interests.

"What we saw out there on the Internet besides a few ads for G4 TV was few and far between [...] The more we started thinking about what we could do with it, the more Dave started to show up with the software. One thing lead to another and my spare bedroom became a studio. We didn't even know what it was going to be called. We didn't have "Shat Trek." We wrote about 20 different possible titles until finally it came to Shat Trek, which is perfect in so many different ways."

With a few help from some friends, some hard work, learning and experimentation - Shat Trek was born. Jack and Dave hope to incorporate many different themes and genres of humor into the series. Shat Trek is planned as a 5 year independent project of 6 minute episodes. The first episode is planned for January 2012.

Logan 5 Pictures will be keeping me in the know by privileging me with more material to come including Sneak peeks, interviews and behind the scenes content. Expect more info about the warped out parody where two guys will boldly go where no man should have gone before. So without further adieu, the teaser! Consider yourselves warned; this video is probably not safe for work.

Google+

2011-07-09T14:16:00.001-07:00

I had the fortune of getting in on Google+ thanks to a resounding response to my request for an invite on Facebook. I just wanted to write a quick blog on my first impressions of the social networking service that I've been lovingly calling "Google Facebook." Before I get to that, however, here's a basic overview of what I've gotten myself into.

Essentially what we're looking at here is a medium in which all of Google's core services seem to form into "Google Voltron". So far I can see Picasa Web Albums, Google Buzz, Google Talk and Google Mail integrated into Google+. Along with Google brand staples that we're familiar with there's also Google's new "+1" feature that is not unlike Facebook's "like" button or Reddit's rank-up button. Things that you "+1" will show up on your profile so that your friends can enjoy/criticize/comment on your findings. They can also base their judgement on the number of "+1s" in total on the web item. There is also Google Hangout where you can have a conference video call with a number of your friends at once. Aside from just skimming over your contacts' favoured web items you can now use Google Sparks. Sparks are topics that you choose that are relevant to your interests. Google+ then takes these Sparks and finds you web content to talk about with your contacts.

Speaking of which, your contacts are organized into "Circles." Each Circle is a label that keeps things tidy by applying a filter to the content in your "News Stream". Circles may also be used to regulate what aspects of your profile are visible to specific circles. Unlike Facebook, sharing information is one way in the beginning. When you add someone to a Circle you have immediate access to whatever that person shares openly. If that person likes you, they can follow you back to see your stuff. On the flip side, if you're that creepy jerk from work that keeps checking them out they can remove you from following them or even block you. Additionally you can share stuff with people who are not in your circle only your content ends up in their "incoming" section instead of a Circle. Another interesting feature to Google+ is their "data liberation" option which lets you reclaim all the data you upload to Google+ to keep as your own. Making it easy for the you to pack their bags and leave without losing all of your stuff definitely contributes to Google's "do no evil" reputation.

To top all of this off - there isn't an ad to be found anywhere. Considering that Google is dependant on ad revenue to function as a business it makes me wonder if it will forever be ad free. Maybe they'll enable adsense for users as the do in many of their other services? Who knows. The layout and news stream is very reminiscent of the "other guy." The only real difference is how much more intuitive the settings are (and how easy they are to find and change) and Google's colours all over instead of that never changing Facebook blue. When considering Facebook and Twitter I would say that Google+ is sort of like a friendly love child of both services and more. Granted, there are a few "missing" features like apps (not a bad thing), events and a specialized mailing system. However, if you wanted to make an "event" you could use Google Calendars and post a link, or simply send a regular email. So far it's simplicity that makes Google+ feel great.

On a semi-unrelated note, I found it amusing just how quickly Zuckerberg announced Skype integration into Facebook during a seemingly rushed press conference to help compete with Google's integrated video chat. It looks like Microsoft and Facebook just might be in cahoots against Google? Let me know what you guys think! Google+ is currently invite only so if anyone wants an invite - let me know.

U.S. Law to Limit Creativity?

2011-07-04T02:59:00.001-07:00

There were a few disturbing articles published around the Internet yesterday regarding a nasty little ammendmant to Bill S. 978 that's being considered by the US Senate. As some of you may already know, I'm Canadian. Why should a bill passed by the U.S. Senate bother me? It could effect the content in this blog for starters.

The long and short of this nasty little amendment is that it could turn publishing copyrighted material without permission over the Internet a felony that is punishable with up to 5 years in jail and/or damages between $2,500-$5,000. I'm not really a law guy. I know that in a lot of cases the law is up for "interpretation." To me the changes seem pretty damned broad by stating "10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period" of "1 or more copyrighted works" will be punishable in a freakin' court of law. From where I'm sitting, if Bill S.978 is amended this way, with no specific definition of what "copyrighted material" is, it could mean the end of blogs like my own as we know them.

There would be no more video tutorials with game footage, personal reviews without permission (purchased or otherwise) or "lets play" videos. Public sites like YouTube would be forever changed. As it is my material could get torn away from public view if the audio resembles copyrighted media. Not being able to use gameplay footage, in my opinion, would be another victory against Internet neutrality. This sort of tasteless censorship feels like an insult. It makes me wonder if anything I buy is ever truly my own! So long as someone can call it "copyrighted," I can only use my property the way some other asshole tells me to. Or else.

Am I overreacting? Is the law up for interpretation? Will game publishers change their terms of use to accomodate guys like me? Who knows. Thankfully these changes are not set in stone yet. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think! If you're in the States and want to help fight the bill, visit Demand Progress and speak your mind. Thank you Joystiq for bringing this to my attention.

Incarna is Here!

2011-06-22T02:59:00.001-07:00

CCP Games released the first update in their Incarna expansion on June 21st. It is my completely biased and heartfelt opinion when I say that this expansion is what will make EVE the space faring MMO to end all space faring MMOs. This first update gives us the Captain's Quarters, the Noble Exchange, brand new ship turrets and much more. The full patch notes can be read here.

The Carbon based engine is exquisite and runs really, really well on my mediocre gaming rig at maximum settings. Your new captain's quarters are thought provoking, moody and fully functional. Essentially these quarters are a replacement for the fairly unexciting space dock interface. Instead of looking down at your androgynous space ship while you go about your business you can leave the confines of your space pod and stretch your legs.

While in your captain's quarters you may browse the new Noble Exchange and preview the aesthetic addons that are currently available for your character and ships. Currency for the Noble Exchange is called Aurum and can be obtained by spending real money. Items purchased with Aurum can then be used or sold in the player market for in game currency (ISK). Essentially the Nobel Exchange is a micro-transaction store filled with cool items that won't give you an edge in the game. The fact that you can just let someone else buy it for you means that the objects in the store are potentially free for all.

This is just the first step in CCP's rolling updates for the Incarna expansion. CCP will be adding more racial based quarters, public access areas and more in the months to come.

Hacking Spree!

2011-06-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hacking seems to be a bit of a fad as of late. It's certainly a re-occurring theme in the tech blog-o-sphere. People are getting hacked and personal information is being leaked in the form of thousands of usernames, passwords and emails. It's not just your typical "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" DDoS shutouts, either. One thing's for sure, it seems that a lot of people and organizations have taken flimsy precautions to avoid being compromised. Why? Because no one really thinks about what doesn't happen all that often. When it does happen, you probably don't realize it until it's too late. At least, not until recently.

LulzSec has been running rampant over the last few weeks while dishing out anarchistic attacks against the flimsy firewalls of the internets. Like the virus writers of the good ol' days, their activities are not for monetary gain. They just want to piss you off and see what other people will do with your info. They want amusement at your expense. Already they've hit big wigs like the CIA, Sony, Bethesda, PBS and CCP. They don't, at this point, show any sign of slowing down. Their Twitter feed is also pelting the public with taunting, whimsical remarks of rebellious squee.

They do, however, make an interesting point. If people like LulzSec aren't hacking your info and sharing it with everyone, someone else is probably doing it and quietly exploiting you in the long run. Better to be hacked and warned, loudly, than to not know until your Facebook is already covered in penises and your Paypal account has been used to tap your credit card dry. They also tend to argue that their malicious attacks point out the flaws in most people's Internet security and services so that they can be adjusted. It's kind of like when grandma used to beat you silly for doing something careless, right? Well, I see it more like an asshole running down the street and punching bystanders in the throat for not being prepared for it. As much as I don't agree with their nonsense, it's still going to keep happening until security on the Internet as a whole is tightened up.

In light of that notion I will be taking extra precautions (as I always have) to reduce the risk of having everything I have setup on the Internet from being compromised. I'd like to share three of the most basic steps anyone on the Internet can follow to protect their own personal info and data:

-Do not use the same password for all your Internet services! This makes it easy for services using common user names (like your email address) to all be compromised in the wake of one service getting hacked.

-Change your passwords often. If you change your password every few weeks or so it protects your info from both silent and announced hacks. By the time someone gets a chance to review your worth you've already changed your password.

-Avoid adds, scams and phishing schemes. If you didn't ask for it, or can't confirm it's legit, don't click the link/picture/banner ect. Don't replay via email or chat with any personal info - especially logins or passwords! For example, if your email provider asks you to confirm your username/password for your email, "or else," consider that they should already know what they are and don't need to be asking!

These concepts are basic, but essential no-brainers. Even if one service is compromised, you haven't opened the door to all the other services you're participating in.

Stay safe!

Humble Frozenbyte Bundle

2011-04-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

The Humble Bundle is at it again. This time they've teamed up with Frozenbyte to release another 5 game bundle. Three of the bundled games are released and two them are still in development. Once again, proceeds from the Humble Bundle can be donated to Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The games on the list this time include Trine, a physics based platformer game where you can pick between 3 characters to overcome challenges. The other two released games (Shadow-Grounds and Shadow-Grounds: Survivor) are both top-down arcade style shooters. The Bundle also comes with Jack Claw, a 3D action game which is in development and a pre-order of Frozenbyte's up and coming platformer, Splot.

As always you're welcome to pay whatever you want for the Humble Bundle but you only have 9 days left to make your purchase. During the last Humble Bundle people who purchased it early were eligible for bonus content. If you like that kind of thing I would encourage you to grab it sooner than later. Trine, Shadowgrounds and its spin-off sequel, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, are available for Windows, Linux and Mac. You may also redeem most of these games on Steam, OnLive and Desura once you get your bundle code as well.

EVE Fanfest 2011

2011-04-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

The good people at CCP Games are still at it. In March they hosted the 2011 EVE Fanfest in Rykjavik, Iceland. During their annual Fanfest they announced many exciting up and coming changes to their flagship game, Eve Online. The scope of what they have in mind for EVE is quite large. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to take the time off and fly to Iceland to enjoy this year's Fanfest. I did, however, review all of the footage on their cozy Youtube channel. I have to say, I'm quite impressed. I'd like to go over some of the changes that I found exciting and noteworthy.

First things first, CCP did a good job of making their intentions clear. They intend on pushing EVE away from being just a game and more into being a living, breathing digital universe. CCP also seemed pretty keen on hearing and responding to player requests. Since I'm not an active participant in their forums I can't say for sure just how well they listened. However they did hold an election for the 6th "Counsel of Stellar Management," a player driven committee that's dedicated to improving EVE by being a conduit of player influence. I feel confident that CCP is addressing player interests.

One of the first things I'd like to note from their "CCP Presents" video is that CCP is raising the bar on their art direction yet again. Character creation, spaceship turrets, nebulas are all being re-done. They're working very closely with NVIDIA to create a visual experience that is both stunning and clean running on most platforms including tablets and smartphones. The user interface is also being re-done to make it more aesthetically appealing, intuitive and user friendly. It's CCP's intention to make the game much more easy for new players to get into instead of saying, and I quote, "handing them a Rubik's cube and saying 'Welcome to EVE. Go fuck yourself.'" Naturally, they've promised to make the game simpler to use without taking away from the complexity of the game.

They also talked a lot about how the expansion of the EVE universe is going to happen. Incursion has been coming out in rolling updates. Incarna, the up and coming expansion, will be released in rolling updates as well. We'll be leaving our ships this summer for the first time in our very own Captain's Quarters. These quarters will be thematic, functional and essentially replace the docked interface with all of the features spacedock has right now. We'll also be eventually seeing walking stations and player run station modules that will host player run establishments. However, CCP's vision is not just limited to spaceships and spacedocks.

Some of you may have heard of a new console shooter game CCP is working on called Dust 514. During Fanfest they've made it clear that there will be an intimate relationship between the EVE universe and all of the things that happen planetside in Dust 514. Essentially, we'll be dealing with a game inside of a game.

Imagine a game universe where you, the capsuleer pilot, can hire and deploy soldiers on a planet to accomplish a goal. Now let's say that each one of these deployed soldiers is a Dust 514 player, sitting at home on her XBox or Playstation. This kind of bridging of game universe would be phenominal. CCP's vision wouldn't stop at planetside conflicts either. Creative director, Reynir Harðarsson, wrapped up an amazing presentation with the passionate rant about how he wants to see players be able to leave their pods while in space and carry out boarding missions on foot in enemy ships and stations. Reynir's vision instantly won my attention (and subscription) indefinitely.

Lastly, EVE is stepping up on security against hacking, botting, and overall server performance challenges. They have purchased server equipment that should double server capacity in busy systems. CCP has also introduced the specialized team comprised of community facing representatives and malware specialists to deal with breaches in the game's TOS. A new smuggling game mechanic is also due to be introduced where players can police and intercept smugglers. Smuggling will also be made into a viable source of ISK. If you'd like to see more I urge you to visit CCP's Youtube channel. In the very least, watch the last 40 minutes of their "CCP Presents" video by clicking here. Also, check out the trailer at the end of this post. Fly safe!

EvE Online

2011-02-01T03:19:00.000-08:00

Eve Online is a Sci-Fi MMORPG by CCP Games. The game has been around since 2003. Most of you probably know (vaguely) what it is and some of you have probably played it within the last 5 years. For those of you who don't have any idea about what Eve is I'll share the core details but for the most part I wanted to share my gameplay perspective on the game.

The genre of Eve is heavy science fiction and takes place around 21 000 years into the future where humans and technology have a nearly symbiotic relationship. Our race has expanded beyond the milky way though a wormhole that had collapsed suddenly and separated the human beings in "New Eden" from the rest of the people in our galaxy. Time had passed and whole new civilizations sprung up in New Eden. The four most prominent races are the Amarr, Gallente, Caldari and the Minmatar. The Amarr are the oldest most religious race, the Gallente are democrats, the Caldari are corperate capitalists and the Minmatar are a sort of rugged ex-slave race. Each race possesses the technology to interface directly with their star ships as Capsuleers. As a Capsuleer you will give up your physical self for immortality and make every ship you board an extension of your consciousness. Should anyone destroy your capsule, you will be reborn as a clone so that you may continue your legacy.

New Eden is your sandbox and there are 7,000 individual star systems to explore. Each system is unique with any number of orbital bodies (planets, moons and stations) that are rated between 0.0 to 1.0 in terms of security. Any system rated below 0.5 has no player protection meaning players can attack one another without consequence. Lower security systems (especially "null sec" or 0.0 rated systems) have the rarest resources and can be captured by player made corporations and alliances. For eight long years New Eden has been maturing from it's core story into what it is today. Politics, sovereignty, economics and culture has been defined by the subscribers. Some of the oldest, most powerful influences in the game even have a say in the game's development to a small degree. For all intents and purposes, New Eden is a completely separate society that is lush, well simulated and open. Anything can happen.

Along with the strangely stable social/economic system within' Eve comes boundless choices. You may pick one of the 4 bloodlines to start as but in all honesty they have little impact over your choices in the long run. Nearly all of your choices in the beginning are subject to change. Your skills in the game are slotted into a "training queue." Depending upon your attributes (Intelligence, Memory, Charisma, Willpower and Perception) the time it takes to learn any skill is modified. Each skill is dependant on 2 core attributes to be learned. You may set your skill queue for as long as 24 hours. Once one of your skills pushes the queue over 24 hours you cannot slot more skills until you've modified which skills you're learning or let the queue deplete a little. Skill training takes place in real time, all the time, until the queue empties. There are no levels, no experience points and no skill cap. All of the skills are available to all blood lines which means eventually, any character could learn everything. Considering the rate at which CCP pumps out content, learning everything could take years. There are veteran players with characters that don't have all of the skills in the game. The idea of not having to devote time to grinding levels and progressing while you're having a life is very attractive (at least, to me it is.)

That doesn't mean Eve is without grinding. On the contrary, the only way to use the skills you spent time learning is to buy the things they're good for. To do that, you'll need money or "ISK." Grinding for ISK sounds really discouraging until you realize how many ways there are to earn the stuff. Because the economy is player driven, there's a large demand for even some of the most mundane supplies. You can devote your skills and time to harvesting raw minerals as a miner, produce goods or even take a more scientific route and research new and improved technologies and goods. Player contracts allow players to strike up protected deals between one another like Courier missions, exclusive production or trading rare goods. Other legitimate ways of making ISK include bounty hunting, militia duties, colonizing planets, scanning and probing for hidden places in space, NPC missions and much, much more.

If legitimate income isn't enough for you, there are plenty of illegal means to make ends meet. Everything from extortion, racketeering, protection money, piracy and drug trafficking. Most of these activities take place in low security space (again, below 0.5 security systems). If you're caught with your pants down in low security space against pirates or extortionists there's no one to help you. Unless the pirates let you go on their own good graces you're stuck or destroyed for profit. With that being said griefing is rampant in Eve since crime is an easy and attractive method of earning. If the proper precautions are taken the impact is minimal and most griefing can be avoided. If all else fails, you can insure your goods. The policy in Eve is freedom and right from the get go the game assures you that you will be destroyed at some point or another. With that being said, in some careers, destruction is frequent and inevitable.

Aside from earning money it's also important for your character to earn good standings with major factions in the game. Higher standings means better missions, production rates and lower taxes at certain stations. Moreover, drastically poor standings could mean facing destruction for passing through a government's space. Unless you like staying on your toes in high security space it's important to find a balance in your behaviour. Ultimately your own decisions can have a huge impact on what you can or can't do in certain regions of space so it's important to keep an eye on your standings.

PvP is open in Eve, especially in 0.0 sector space. PvP has a huge impact over the gameplay experience since entire regions of the galaxy can be controlled by an alliance of player made corporations. Some regions of space have been fought over for years just so that one alliance or another can reap the benefits of the rarest resources and make the most money. Subscription time can be bought with in-game currency so in game currency (ISK) has a real life dollar value. Some of the wars being fought for in the furthest regions of null sector space are worth thousands of real dollars if you consider how much $14.95 worth of game time goes for in game (around 320 million ISK). One of the largest battles of note netted losses of around $15 000 US.

Needless to say there's a lot going on in a game that's so well established that it's still winning tons of "Game of the Year" awards. Eve may feel a fair bit dull (especially in the beginning) because all you're really capable of doing at the start is running low end missions, mining and jumping from system to system while running freight. Unless you like travelling through space a lot, getting around in the game can feel extremely slow and tedious. Provided that you're not travelling throw low security space you can set autopilot but that will ultimately drag out most already long, long space flights. If you're not paying attention pirates can still try to gank you in high security space mostly because they can organize your ganking with one another pirate and scoop your loot while you're running back to a station to recover a ship. Once you have an idea of what you're doing the game comes naturally and options start opening up all over the place. Getting on board with a like-minded corporation never hurts, either.

What's more, the game is constantly expanding and upgrading for free. The most recent free expansion to do date, "Incursion," includes a brand spanking new Carbon Based character creator that redefines the faces of New Eden. Not only do you get to chose a new face for your characters but you get to customize your outfits and body type in preparation to this summer's expansion "Incarna." CCP has confirmed that in Incarna the people of new Eden will be able to leave their ships for the first time in nearly 9 years to explore the inside of space stations on foot. Players will be able to interact with one another face to face. Corporations will be able to rent out modules in space stations for the purpose of setting up trade and social establishments. Incarna opens the door to a whole new target demographic by blowing the doors open on face to face social interaction in the game. Along with Incursion came more PvE content as well with global PvE events where the Shansha Nation attacks low security space. If you're not sure how much training you've got left to do before resetting your skill queue, you can double check your character in a pinch from the all new browser based Eve Gate.

With no end to the horizon in site, Eve continues to be a strong, prevalent and influential force in the MMO market place. In a lot of ways Eve is exactly what a sandbox environment should be. There are no restrictions on the potential of any one player and anything can happen in one massive persistent galaxy. Even though the game should seem dated Eve online is still a stunning and beautiful visual experience. The learning curve is very steep and not very newbie friendly. Thankfully the support in Eve is top notch. I was approached personally, out of the blue, by a GM within the first week of gameplay for a followup and to see if I had any questions. CCP Support has been very quick and effective with their support after the fact as well. With a little patience and perseverance the game is very enjoyable.

Dot Dot Dot

2011-01-19T03:50:00.001-08:00

Ok, I'm not usually one for blogging other people's reviews...but this one's priceless. Believe it or not, this was based on an actual "review post" on new grounds. I've got to say that Axman13's review of Super PSTW Action RPG is startlingly accurate and hilarious...but only beacuase the voices where pretty good.

Minecraft Revisit

2011-01-16T02:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take an opportunity to cover some of the aspects of Minecraft that I didn't go over in my first article now that Minecraft has reached beta. Those topics would be skinning, texture packs, redstone wiring and multiplayer gameplay.

While there's nothing new about re-skinning your character I still want to touch base on how neat skinning is. In order to re-skin your character (so that you appearance changes no matter what server you're on in multiplayer or in single player) you will need a premium account. At the Minecraft website, log in and click on "Profile." It's there you'll be able to see your current skin and be able to upload a new skin. You may also download the default skin to tinker with. There are whole communities of players (like Skindex) that commit to re-skinning the default model so there's already already a large selection of re-skins on the Internet. You can change the default texture for your character using an image editor. I personally took a few of my favorite custom skins and modified them to be (appropriately) bald and beardly and uploaded them to my profile:

Re-texturing the Minecraft world is a different beast altogether. At the moment there's no major website of consolidated texture packs. If you google for "Minecraft Texture Packs" you'll find a few different pages and a number of threads in the Minecraft forums with links to different packs. The two most common formats that these packs come in are standard (16x16 pixels) and "HD" (32x32 pixels).

While "HD" packs definitely look more splendid, you need the aid of a special texture patcher to enable all of the in game animations while using 32 bit textures. If you run the patcher, you're stuck with that texture pack until you manually patch in a different one. The 16 bit packs are properly supported and can be added to your texture packs folder inside of the in game menu.

If you want to try a 32 bit pack, however, I would recommend using JohnSmiths's texture packs. In the thread for his texture pack there is a link to the HD patcher as well. Otherwise, check out Painterly. The Painterly website has an on site tool that lets you customize a decent 16 bit package that's properly supported. If you're a tinkerer, you can use an image editor (with transparency support) to make your own texture packs or even mix, match and modify elements from other packs. It's fairly easy to modify the textures when all of their elements are stored in transparent .png files within the texture pack's archive. One thing to keep in mind is that your texture pack is stored locally only. All of your creations may look different in the eyes of other players in a multiplayer scenario.

On the note of multiplayer, I mentioned in my review of Minecraft Alpha that I wasn't a fan of public servers due to griefing. However, you can only go so far in single player in terms of sharing your creations. I joined the folks down at Jupiter Broadcasting to check out what multiplayer is all about. Needless to say, the Jupiter community rebooted my interest in the game and helped me explore the tricker aspects of Minecraft like redstone wiring.

Redstone wiring (or circuitry) is a system that provides basic input/output logic. Using redstone wiring I was able to make doors that stayed upon until they were reset, combination lock doors, lava spill traps and any combination of the examples above. I've only just begun to tinker with it and I have many, many more ideas. I was completely baffled by redstone at first but after watching KaleHavoc's tutorial videos I was good to go. Needless to say there's too much to redstone wiring for me to cover it all one one article so I strongly suggest checking out KaleHavoc's videos.

Even in a community of respectable players, the odd griefer does show up. If you're playing on multiplayer you're going to encounter them. Unless you're on a private server, hide your valuable minerals and be prepared to fix your creations. I've already had to repair my redstone puzzles and tricks several times. Considering the joy that comes with collaborating with other players, sharing your creations or exploring theirs, the griefing really is minor detail. If there's a decent server to be had I'd encourage anyone to give multiplayer a try.
On January 13th beta patch 1.2 was released with a slew of new content with it. It's the first patch since the Halloween update to include new content and not all bug fixes. Some noteworthy updates include 15 wool dyes (not quite sure what we're dying wool for but it implies a lot), dispenser blocks that dispense items when used with redstone, musical blocks that play a note/instrument when struck or lit with redstone and much, much more. The complete breakdown of 1.2 is available at the Minecraft Wiki site. Although this patch is awesome it did include a ton of new blocks. Because of this a number of texture packs were rendered outdated due to weirdness (blocks with no textures, invisible items and such). Hopefully the 3rd parties involved in texture packs will update their content quick. Mind you, it wouldn't hurt to see some fully supported texture packs that were kept updated with the game. Either way we are one step closer to full release now that Minecraft has reached beta. I'm very excited to see what happens to the game over the course of the next few months.

KeePass Password Safe

2011-01-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

There's been a bit of a buzz around the Internet since Gawker was hacked in December '10. We all know security over the Internet is important. This isn't anything new since we all know how easy it is for an individual to have their personal and financial information compromised. What made the Gawker incident such a big deal was the scope of compromised accounts. There were 1.3 million accounts stolen from the Gawker servers and 200 thousand of those accounts were cracked and leaked onto the Internet.

Many users who had their Gawker info hacked had other services broken into as a result of using the same password for several Internet Services. There was also a staggering number of people who over used simple passwords. The average person needs to remember 12 passwords. Between my personal exploits and work I'm sure I've got over 20 buried in my brain. The big important question is - how can I have several unique and secure passwords and remember all of them? Let's face it, if anyone were truly trying figure out my passwords then I can't just change a number or a letter here and there. To have a truly secure password means having one that's impossible to remember and to change it often.

That's where KeePass Password Safe comes in. KeePass is an open source software utility that uses either the AES or the TwoFish method to encrypt a small database that contains your password information. AES and TwoFish are government standard 128bit encryption methods that are top notch. There are currently no sure fire ways to crack AES or TwoFish. You may access your encrypted database or "password safe" with one master password (which should be memorable but as complex as possible) or a unique password keyfile. A keyfile can be stored on a disk or usb stick and is completely unique. You may also use both a Master Password and a keyfile to be extra secure. If you're using a keyfile to unlock your database, don't stick that keyfile in the same place as your database and keep a backup of it somewhere. If you lose your keyfile you will not be able to get back into your database.

KeePass doesn't just store and encrypt passwords. It also automatically generates them based on criteria that is defined by the user. This way you can have the most complex password possible for virtually any online service. KeePass will also auto-enter usernames and passwords for you so that nasty keyloggers can't grab your login info. When all of your 12 passwords (on average) look like complete gibberish and are 100bits or better, not many people will have enough motivation or know how to crack your password. If the Internet service in question (facebook, myspace, banking) gets hacked then you know that there's no way your leaked password can let anyone into your other services. Moreover, you can set keypass to have your passwords expire so that you're reminded to change them later. You can even setup passwords that can only be used once through the TAN wizard.

The Classic KeePass (1.X) comes with everything you need and a bit more. If you really need more features you can try the pro version (2.x). I haven't noticed anything in the pro version that really merits going out of your way to use it. The Classic version produces databases that are compatible with cross platform versions of KeePass. There are independently developed versions of KeePass for nearly all platforms including Linux and even the iPhone. If you need more functionality you can modify the original software with various plugins from the website.

There's also an official install-free version that you can load onto a USB stick if you want to carry your database with you and use it anywhere.

Braid

2010-12-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

Braid is an indie (independent) side scrolling platform game developed by Jonathan Blow. You play the role of a little man in a suit who is trying to find his princess through a crazy series of "Cloud Worlds."
Each world has a set of story books that tell you what each world represents. Every world has a collection of jigsaw puzzle pieces that are largely guarded by puzzles. To get to all of the jigsaw pieces you need to use the unique time-shifting ability that comes with that world. Each ability is pretty unique. Once you've completed all 5 jigsaw puzzles you get to move onto the final world and rescue your princess.

All of the puzzles are challenging enough to be stimulating but not so challenging that you'd want to gouge your eyes out. If you get too frustrated with one puzzle you can simply move on and come back to it later. Braid is very forgiving in the sense that if you make a mistake you can reverse it on the spot by rewinding time and all of the puzzles can be put off until you're ready for them.
Overall Braid is a charming and beautiful gameplay experience. Environments in the game have a vibrant, water-colored feel and the music is beautiful. Needless to say the art direction in Braid is outstanding. The game mechanics are smooth and the puzzles are well designed and clever. Braid is one indie game that has solid mainstream-like polish. Moreover, Braid is available on Mac, Linux, PC and XBox (through console markets) so the game is very accessible.

With all that being said the only downers I can come up with are that the game is a little short and the story writing is a little vague and even a little unimportant. Braid is fairly original but it seems to pull from a lot of existing IPs (like Mario and Prince of Persia). Overall I feel comfortable giving Braid an 8.5 out of 10.

The Humble Indie Bundle 2

2010-12-18T23:54:00.000-08:00

This week I'm taking a look at the Humble Indie Bundle #2. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to hear about the first Humble Bundle until after it was over. From what I understand it was a huge success. When I heard that there would be a second Humble Bundle, I jumped all over it.

So what is the Humble Indie Bundle and why should you care? The Humble Bundle is a collection of 5 Indie (independent) games all rolled into one package. The best aspect of the Humble Bundle is that you get to choose your price for all five games. You can also purchase with piece of mind by donating to the charities that support the Humble Bundle.

The Humble Bundle #2 includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos and Revenge of the Titans.

Each game is very unique and quite polished. They are also all avaliable for Windows, Linux and Mac so you're not tied down to any specific platform. Braid is sort of an action/adventure side-scrolling platform game with some neat time/dimension mechanics. Cortex Command is a side-scrolling strategy game. Machinarium is a very unique hand drawn point and click adventure and puzzle game. Osmos is a physics based puzzle game. Revenge of the Titans, which is completely new, looks like a sort of RTS style strategy game. There's really too much going on in each game for me to give them all their due merit in one post so I may have to revisit each one later.

The Humble Bundle supports two charities, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Child's Play. The EFF is a non-profit organization driven to maintain the overall integrity of a free and just Internet. Some of the aspects of a free and just Internet according to the EFF include free speech, innovation and privacy. Child's Play is a special organization that collect money to donate toys and games to less fortunate children and families.

If you're looking for an easy gift this year, the Humble Indie Bundle 2 could be a steal or a generous donation. There is just one catch:

You only have 8 days to take advantage of the bundle so whatever your decision is, better make it quick. Have fun! Edit:Some of you may be aware of this already but those who purchased the Humble Bundle before the 23rd also got the first Humble Bundle free and one bonus game! New buyers just need to pay above the average (about $8) to get all 11 games.