Zombie Dice

So, we bought a game called Zombie Dice.  It's a quick dice game made by the same people that made Munchkin.  Sweet game.

Our 2yo is now "brains? brains? zommie?"

(Edit: originally called it Zombie Brains, whereas it actually is Zombie Dice)

SWTOR cancellation

Oh, I forgot to mention that I cancelled my Star Wars subscription.  I didn't have enough time, my computer is too sucky to play it, and I found that the same thing that was true of WoW was true of it - you just wander around, push 113244231 until something dies, and repeat.

This time I pushed through till about level 28, whereas with WoW I made it to 73.

LAN party with Diablo 3

So, some friends of mine bought Diablo 3, and one of them invited me to a Diablo 3 LAN party.  I didn't want to buy it (yet), so we postulated that I could play with them for a bit with a guest pass.  So we and a few other friends tried to find me one for a few days (most of them bought the digital version), until a friend at work had a friend who didn't need one and I borrowed his.

So we're all excited, show up to the LAN party, and then after a few minutes we realize that guest players can only play with other guest players (or random strangers).  Cheap.  So I spent 4 hours and went as far as I could on the guest mode by myself (with the other guys from the LAN party).

All in all, it's a pretty fun game.  The story seemed a lot like the original Diablo I played in 1997 - you had to fight the Skeleton King, and then the Butcher.  The story presented itself a little more clearly and the UI was nicer.

However, after the 4 hours, I think that was good enough - I've had my feel and I don't really feel the need to keep going.

Bejeweled Blitz

Not quite sure this counts as "gaming", but oh well.

So, about a year or two ago, when I actually looked at facebook, I would play "Bejeweled Blitz".  Right about the point where I thought I was any good, I noticed everybody else was 4x better.

So I discovered my 7yo playing it on the iPad.  He knew all the names of everything - "Dad, you could have gotten a hypercube".  But on average I could do a little better than him.  Then, I brought it upstairs, and my wife proceeded to clobber me.

Maybe I was just not meant to win any games :)

nonsocial SWTOR

So, I've found at least 2/3 of the time I play SWTOR is when I'm tired and don't want to do anything else.  Normally, "anything else" includes socializing.

However, SWTOR is kind of a social game.  When you log on, your friends see you online (and I haven't found a way to not advertise your presence) and they want to hang out.  Which is good, unless you're already tired and don't want to socialize.

However (*2), my friends are a lot more gung-ho than me.  One of my friends has a level 48*, a level 22, and probably another; and my other friend has like 6 level 20s.  I have 1 level 21.  That's it.

So it turns out I kind of have to make "appointments" to hang out online, and then I make sure I'm in the mood. :)

* Each level takes a little longer than the previous one, making getting to 50 pretty hard

SWTOR graphics

So, with the first few days of playing SWTOR, I was excited.  And then, I went in a building.  And once I did the graphics tanked, to the seconds-per-frame range.  But I persevered, kept going, and made budgetary plans to go buy a new computer in a few months.  I had made the graphics settings all to 'low', went to windowed mode, and made the window like 500x300 and it was almost bearable (but I couldn't read anything).  But then - a friend said to turn off the shadows (I hadn't noticed the setting because it was already on 'low'), and then it worked fine!  Huzzah!

Luigi's Purple Coins

So, my 7yo got Super Mario Galaxy for his birthday a few months ago.  Our MO has been he'll play a level a few times, and if he can't beat it, he'll pass the controller over to me.  So we beat the game, and then there is a bonus if you get all 120 stars.  We have 80 something right now, and we're trying to pass "Luigi's Purple Coins".  I can't beat that one yet; it's the only one I haven't been able to beat, and I've had like 20 tries at it.

SWTOR actual

Actually got on!  Woohoo!  Made it to level 7 yesterday, and ran about an hour with a friend.

My computer it starting to drive me nuts, but I didn't notice until about a month ago.  I was at a gaming party (LAN party) with a friend, and we were playing a custom Starcraft 2 map, and my computer was doing 2-3 spf (yes, I mean seconds per frame).  Then we were playing Magicka, and we were having some weird problems, like my game wouldn't come out of certain transitions.

But SWTOR plays okay, except indoors or underground, where I can get about 3 fps.  I sped it up to about 6fps by making it in small windowed mode.

Bought a League of Legends hero

Last night I bought my first expensive hero - Ahri (at 6300 IP - where you earn IP for playing and winning, etc.)  Yes, I've been playing off and on for 6 months and just barely got there.  Bite me.

However, I stink with her.  Oh well.

SWTOR online tomorrow!!!!

I get to play SWTOR (Star Wars the Old Republic) in about 12 hours!  Even though I could have been for about a week, and my friends have been bugging me to get online, my wife and I agreed for it to be a Christmas present.  Well, we agreed to open presents tomorrow, on the 24th.

(I actually wanted it for a Christmas present.  Besides, I'm terrible to shop for - I have no idea what I want, and so I can't tell anybody what I want, so they hate shopping for me.)

More ping pong

So, I got beat at Ping Pong by a guy a few positions down from me in the ladder.  Then the guy I beat the other day beat him.  So now, I'm about back where I started.

(With our ladder, if you beat somebody, you go above them in the ladder.)

And thus, it is very possible, that person A > person B > person C > person A.

Riven - League of Legends

So I tried Riven on LoL last night and SUCKED it up.  Holy cow.  I tried an isolated environment with a friend and almost kept up with him, but with the actual games we did just did terrible.

Ping Pong!!!

Woohoo!!!1

I beat a coworker I'd been trying to beat for two months at work today!

I was a good ping pong player when I was a kid, and then I tried to play people outside of my family.  And THEN I tried playing people at work.

Then I figured out there were a bunch of ways to spin the ball.  Holy cow! So I spent tens of minutes practicing that over the months, and beat my first target!  So now I'm halfway up the ladder.

Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart

So, I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy with my 7yo since his birthday a few months ago, and then all of a sudden we started playing Mario Kart.  Once we started it up, we discovered that we unlocked Rosalina, just by playing SMG.  Apparently she's very difficult to unlock otherwise, and one of my friends was a little upset that that's all we had to do.

(After looking it up, you have to play SMG *and* win 50 games).

SWTOR

The second worst thing about doing lots of stuff is that you never get really good at any one thing.  This is especially true in the world of online gaming.

So over the last few months I've been playing League of Legends, thanks to a friend, and I'm probably what you would call a "noob".  I'm on level 18 (out of 30), and I've lost more games than I've won, but only barely.  Some characters I can play all right with, but I'm no expert at all.

Anyway, so I beta tested Star Wars - the Old Republic on their beta testing weekend, and it seemed cool.  It launches on Dec 20, has a pre-launch of Dec 15, but my wife is getting it for me for Christmas.  I played World of Warcraft for a while, but haven't in the last 2 years, and was probably a noob at that, too.  But maybe this time it will be different.

And hopefully my friends that don't know each other that I'm collecting to be with me won't kill each other or me by the time this is done.