DarqByte

So this is a dual blog post apparently… I thought about splitting it into two, but neither subject is really long enough to devote its own blog post to, unless they’re short posts.

Basically, today had a 45-minute window of blog posty goodness. I called up my Mom to talk to her while I finished up some things here at home and while I drove to church afterwards. A short time after I left my house, I asked her what she was doing at that moment, and she said she was playing World of Warcraft… Yes, seriously. My Mom was playing World of Warcraft. She’s been playing MMOs for a few years now. She started with a couple Disney MMOs, Toontown and Pirates, I believe. Her guild leader in Pirates apparently suggested repeatedly for her to give WoW a try, so she acquiesced and got an account.

Now she’s hooked on WoW. And it floors me. My Mom, playing World of Warcraft? How the hell did this happen? The most popular MMO and she’s playing it. Not only that, I’m not playing it! The reason I try not to play MMOs is because I know I’d get addicted. I have in the past. I played Earth and Beyond for quite some time after its release and I played it just about every moment I didn’t have something very important to do. There’s just too much time required to play MMOs. But here my Mom is, playing a game not even I play.

It’s just a little strange to me… I’m supposed to be the gamer, you know?

In any case, a few minutes before I hung up to head into church, I got a call from a 1-800 number and ignored it. I didn’t recognize the number and I was talking to my Mom for the remaining moment I had before walking in to church (which is nearly midway through service at this moment). Laura called me right as I hung up the phone with my Mom and told me that ADT called her about our alarm going off. Well, I knew who the 1-800 number was now.

I started driving back home and gave ADT a call. Our motion sensor had tripped and they’d already alerted the local police about 10 minutes before I got a real person on the phone there. I let them know I was on my way home and they took down my vehicle information so that the cops would know I was the homeowner.

So I got home before the police arrived and tentatively entered my home… Nothing out of place. No sign of entry, nothing moved, the dog happy as a clam to see me, the cat upstairs. Nada. The motion sensor is downstairs overlooking the dining and living rooms… How on earth it could have gotten tripped without any other zones going off is beyond me. The cat only weighs 10 pounds at the most, and the motion detector requires 50 pounds to set it off. So I have no clue what the hell happened.

I called ADT back and let them know it was a false alarm… And decided to write this blog post in the meantime. I think that the police still have to show up because the call was made, but I’m not sure. We’ll see later today if they show up.

So a couple days ago, Venture Bros: Season 1: Disc 1 came in from Netflix. I absolutely love Netflix. It’s nice to have one single flat fee for a video rental service. Especially since we can stream Netflix over my Xbox 360. That’s really nice for the titles they have that support that.

The show is really funny. I first saw a few episodes of it when I was at a video game party with Andy Taylor. I just now finally got around to watching it from the beginning using Netflix.

Sorry for the post-a-month thing I have going on right now. It’s tough to keep up because I’m so busy lately. And it won’t get any better once I start my MBA classes at UNLV next month. I still have a few things to wrap up for that, such as my financial aid, parking, a backpack and books. And who knows if I’ll be able to take my laptop with me, as it’s a behemoth and overheats a little too easily without the fan stand I have for it.

I’ve been trying to put a little time here and there into OMGN. I’m building a new database structure, new code structure and new design for the site. Basically, I’m building a brand-new OMGN, which is currently on it’s third iteration, more or less. The underlying code hasn’t really changed but it’s on its third major design. This new structure I’m building will be just totally great.

Hm… Lot of other things to talk about, not much time at the moment. I’ll write more later.

To those that know me, this is not old news. Laura and I have different bands we hold as our favorites. For Laura, it’s The Beatles. For me, it’s Van Halen.

There was a time when I tried to convince Laura that Van Halen was far superior to The Beatles. Well, they are. But I don’t try to convince her any more. All she does is bring out sales figures and the number of bands that say The Beatles influenced them. I’d counter with things like how many bands said Van Halen influenced them and that The Beatles came first, so you can’t judge sales figures.

Of course, The Beatles influenced Van Halen. But that doesn’t make them better. The Beatles probably had influences too, but that doesn’t make the influences better than The Beatles now does it?

But I’m not here to argue the point much. I’m here to point you to an article about two video games coming out this fall. Well, you don’t really need to read the article, I’ll summarize.

Just about everybody knows about Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The two mega-popular rhythm games based on guitar-based bands. Well, for some time now Guitar Hero has been rolling out band-specific versions of their game. Aerosmith and Metallica have already come. Rock Band hasn’t done the same.

Well, recently Rock Band announced they were developing a Beatles-specific version of their game. Naturally, Laura was super-excited and we’ll have to get it eventually (hopefully our existing equipment will work well with it).

And now there are rumors that Guitar Hero will finally release a Van Halen-based game. That’s only natural progression, right? Using Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar-based bands ever, in a game that features the guitar more than any other? Makes sense.

And the kicker? It looks like the Van Halen game is being developed and deployed at the same time as the Beatles game to combat it. How could it get any better for Laura and me? Now our bands battle can continue in video games!

But I still won’t quote sales numbers for the games to determine which is better. I could make guesses as to why which game would sell more, such as:

• Van Halen because the band is better
• Van Halen because it’s based on the Guitar Hero franchise, and it almost always outsells Rock Band
• The Beatles because Rock Band has never released a band-specific game
• Or, one of the games is far and above better than the other and is more enjoyable to play

Let the throwdown begin!

Today is a mixed bag for me. A very interesting mixed bag. On the good side, I’ve got three good things this morning.

Good thing number one is that I got a birthday gift this morning! Even though my birthday isn’t for two more days. Actually, I also got a gift yesterday in the mail, from the Parker clan in upstate New York. Since I know Katie reads my blog, I’ll thank them here, because they rock. Gift cards for video games are always an A+ in my book!

Anyway, good thing number two is that I have a soccer game tonight. Thursdays are almost always better than the previous three weekdays, not only because it’s so close to the weekend, but because I get to play soccer that evening.

And good thing number three that… Well, it’s better than #2 but I can’t decide if it can beat out #1. But without further ado… I’m under 200 pounds! It’s taken me a little longer to get here than I’d have liked, but I have finally broken under the 200-pound barrier. It’s been awhile since I’ve been under 200 and I’m very happy now that I’m here. Hopefully Morton’s on Saturday won’t break that.

And now… For the bad news. The Vice President of Software Development here at my work is, well, no longer here. He was a really good guy and I liked him a lot. Looked up to him in many respects too. I’m pretty bummed that he’s not here anymore. I don’t really know the reason why he’s gone, but I’d rather not speculate. It’s a big downer because he was very well-liked here among the developers. Kinda sucks.

So that’s my mixed bag for the day.

Finally, someone in the mainstream media says something along the lines of what I’ve been saying for a long time. Doug Elfman, come on down!

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/elfman/Rapelay_Its_A_Repugnant_Video_Game_But_Its_Also_Rare.html

I’m having trouble figuring out what to talk about today for my blog post. There’s not a whole lot on my mind right now that I feel like posting about.

I already talked about Watchmen… And it’s sticking with me. Sometimes media will stick with me after I’ve “consumed” it, be it movies, books, music or video games. When I say sticking with me, I mean it kind-of takes up a temporary residence in my memory. Spoiler Alert Like the scene in Gears of War 2 where Dom finds his wife and basically has to kill her because she’s been broken by torture, that stuck with me for about a day End Spoiler Alert. So Watchmen has stuck with me for a bunch of reasons, be it the story, the romance between two characters… Even the graphic novel stuck with me.

I can’t talk yet about the photo shoot that Laura and I did last night for Project: FH – March 2009. Although you can preview it a little with this post on her blog. The final result of that shoot will be awesome.

I did see No Country For Old Men the other day on my XBox 360 via Netflix. It was a good movie, but the ending wasn’t quite what I was looking for. But oh well, it’s a Cohen brothers’ movie.

Let’s see, what to talk about… I think I’m going to get a wireless bridge for the entertainment center downstairs, that way I can network all of the devices there to our wireless network. Our wireless router sits upstairs and I’m not running cable all the way down to network, so a bridge will suffice. Want to get coach lights and bar lights for the house sometime soon… Blu-Ray player and home theater PC eventually…

I wouldn’t mind getting Street Fighter IV either, as well as The Lost and the Damned expansion for GTA IV. I’ve chewed through a good deal of my Christmas video game haul thusly:

1. Beat Fallout 3
2. Guitar Hero: World Tour play continues on
3. I’m done with Need for Speed Undercover
4. Not done with Dead Space, but it’s intermittent when I play for various reasons (creepiness indeed!)
5. Defeated Gears of War 2 campaign and have moved on to online play (Horde mode FTW)

I’ve got some other XBox Live Arcade games I’m in the middle of a bit too:

1. Braid, I’m a few worlds in on this one
2. Portal, I want to start doing some of the challenges

Well, there’s a recap for you.

Oh, and I tried to make an artistic look at my Zoolander photo from Project: FH – February 2009. I couldn’t make one work very well, there’s too much detail that needs to be kept from the original photo to make it work. Sorry Katie & Sarah!

So I’ve got another irritated video games post to write, in-part as a followup to my post about a certain missions in NFS being difficult. I should also mention Jenner Cauton’s F9 blog, where he rants and raves about video games on a semi-daily basis. There are some good ones in there.

So last night I played some Mario Kart Wii and some more Need For Speed: Undercover. All-in-all, tons of fun, especially MKW. That game is pretty fun and I’m looking forward to unlocking most of the stuff so when party-goers come over we can choose from anything in the game to play.

But today is a day for ranting about video game AI, especially these two racing games. Let’s start with MKW.

Mario Kart has, and probably always will be, a really fun game because it can help level the playing field. The game does a really good job in keeping all of the racers in the game provided that the racers aren’t falling off the track every two seconds. This is good for competitive reasons and to keep the players interested in the game, but it’s not good for people that are truly dominating the game, especially when said player is playing alone.

Whatever do I mean? Well, for example, last night I was dominating the computer AI racers. Just annihilating them. Consistently in first , finished most of the races in first place too. But not all of them.

The items in MKW can really level the playing field. Racers in the back of the pack, by percentage, have a high rate of getting items that can really tip the balance of the race. Turning into Bullet Bill, for example, can get you ahead of half of the pack. Getting the blue shell will annihilate the race leader for a decent amount of time, allowing others to catch up. Red shells are homing shells, etc.

Well, a few times last night I experienced stretches where the computer AI players were throwing the book at me. There was one time in particular that I was surprised I even ended up in first. I had red shells and blue shells galore connecting with me, yet I still ended up in first by about 4-5 seconds. Imagine if I hadn’t had an inordinately large amount of items hit me. Another race I had about a half-lap lead on the AI going into the last lap. I ended 4th and did not totally fuck up during the race.

Overcompensating AI is irritating at times, especially if it can have a drastic impact in the game, much like MKW. But it’s not too bad there because MKW levels the field. It’s easy to get crushed but make a comeback because the very devices that can bring you down from first can put you back there.

Now, NFS is another story… NFS does have some balancing features in the AI, and it’s usually features designed to keep the AI racers somewhat competitive. The game is really pretty easy, but there are times when it’s overboard on how obviously it’s trying to keep the race close or get you into second place.

One thing I’ve noticed about the game is its placement of traffic. Oftentimes, you can see traffic coming up ahead and adjust accordingly. Although the faster you go, the tougher this is, especially around curves and hills… And hills are bitches to get through.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been worried about what’s coming up over the hill. And I can’t tell you how many of those times there was a car waiting for me to smack it dead center because I just absolutely could not see it coming. Or around a bend, for that matter.

And the problem with this? The computer AI acts too well in these situations. Obviously, the AI knows the car is there.  But does the AI take into account that a real driver wouldn’t be able to see the obstacle on the other side? No. Aside from the random factor the game throws in to simulate mistakes, AI racers almost always miss obstacles around curves or over hills.

This wouldn’t be so much of a problem, much like MKW, if mistakes such as these weren’t so crippling. If you’re trying to achieve Domination status for a race, you can’t really make many mistakes. And mistakes like this can absolutely kill your chances for winning certain race types, such as the one where the winning racer is the one that puts 1000 feet between themselves and their singular opponent.

On a side note, I’ve also noticed in NFS that opponent AI is really good at not spinning out. Too good. Countless times have I had encounters with AI racers, hitting from all sides and angles and different formations, and the only car to spin out, should one of us spin out, is me. Irritating.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the blog post title. Firkin is indeed not a word. But I’m making it one. See, the word frickin’ is a “clean” version for the word fucking. I’m taking it one step further, transposing and making it sound more fun, by using firkin. It reads as “fur-kin.” Have fun with that one!

Ok, so remember my post recently about certain things in video games being too hard? I posted it two days ago.

Well, last night, before I started watching the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels eventually lose to the San Diego State Aztecs, I decided to load up Need For Speed: Undercover again and play a bit. I played some of the races and farted around randomly. Then I decided, just for shits and giggles, to try that one job again.

Hm… Now that’s interesting… One try and I defeat it… All while barely taking any damage to the car…

Well, I can tell you the one thing I did differently than the other times was I actively seeked out racebreakers, which are points in the city that you race in that can be activated in some manner to cause roadblocks and disable police cruisers. You usually activate them by smashing into one part connected to them, such as a weak beam for an overpass.

So maybe it wasn’t quite as hard as I thought it was… It was still damn irritating when I couldn’t beat it though.

Retro video games almost always had enormously difficult levels in them. Take the original Donkey Kong, for example. Even the early levels in that game were tough. You had to be insanely awesome to reach even, say, the 10th level.

When video games started becoming mainstream, they started getting a little easier. If you’re trying to appeal to a wide audience, then that wide audience needs to eventually be able to beat the game. That isn’t to say the game should be a cakewalk, but it certainly shouldn’t put up a brick wall so tough that only Jonathan Wendel can defeat it.

So since I’ve defeated Fallout 3′s main quest, I’ve been sprinkling in other games. I’ve been mostly playing Dead Space, which is awesome by the way. But I’ve also been playing some Need For Speed: Undercover and Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Tonight I was playing NFS. It’s a fun game, even if it’s not totally deep and whatnot. In the game, you’ll occasionally get “jobs” from another local racer. Basically, the job is to steal a specific car and drop it off at a chop shop. A bit like GTA, actually.

The police force in the game is pretty effective. You can’t lose them easily and at the higher levels, they’re a downright, well, force to be dealt with. If you end up getting the helicopter following you, good luck, because you’ll never lose it. You have to outlast it.

So all this step for, I know you’re expecting it — a car theft while being followed by the top-tier police force with a helicopter. And let’s not stop there, ohh no — you can’t total the car either. If it sustains too much damage, theft over.

I’ve done a couple other thefts in the game so far and they’re really not that bad. One of them had the same mechanics, save for swapping out the helicopter for a timer that you had to beat in getting to the chop shop without police presence.

But this one is, so far, ludicrous. I’m always up for a challenge in the games I play, but this is just too far. The story won’t progress unless you complete the jobs. You can’t unlock better cars and parts without completing the jobs. And here I am, relatively early on in the game, presented with such a big challenge that after about 45-60 minutes of trying, I have to stop and write an irked blog post about it.

Some people lately have been lamenting that games have indeed gotten easier as time has gone on. In some of them, all you really have to do is play long enough to beat it. But basically blocking, let’s say 60%+ of a game’s story because of a ridiculously difficult “job?” Come on. This is stupid. The last thing EA needs is for me to feel ripped off because here’s this $60 game that I can’t play anywhere near all of because of some stupidly difficult challenge early on.

See… Think about it this way. If the difficult challenge is for you to solve some puzzle or something of that nature, that’s ok. At the very least, you could look up the solution online. If the difficult challenge is to perform a set of actions in particular order with good timing or whatnot, that’s alright too. But when the challenge is, say, losing a really good police force AI with a helicopter while not totalling a car… Stupid hard.

EA didn’t play the balancing act well on this one. If I get held up on this one spot too long, I’ll feel really ripped off and may not play the game again, or any other future NFS game…

I’ve decided I’m not satisfied with where I am at in life. This decision I’ve come to isn’t some huge revelation or anything. I mean, everybody should strive to improve their situation, be it financially, emotionally, socially or something else (politically?). But I’ve just come to the conclusion that I’m nowhere near satisfied with my life.

This has nothing to do with my married life. I’m totally 100% happy with Laura. There’s absolutely no question there. Home life is really good, I get along with my family very, very well, I feel I’ve got a really good set of friends…

I’m talking about lifetime accomplishments here. My career. Things I want to do in life. It’s tough to keep things in perspective because I’m only 24 years old. I’ve got a long life ahead of me, plenty of time to do things and advance my career. But I’m still dissatisfied with where I’m at right now. There’s so much I want to do that I wonder if I have enough time in my life to do it all, unless somehow I achieve immediate success in some of these areas.

I named this post Wikipedia because I want to do something big enough to have my own Wikipedia article. Yeah, I know that being on Wikipedia doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it does have its standards on the level of importance and relevance to society in order for something to be posted on there. My video game website, OMGN, is listed as a source on quite a few articles, but still nothing major.

It’s kind-of like when artists say they feel they’ve arrived when Weird Al Yankovic parodies their style or a particular song. I think that having my own Wikipedia article listing some cool accomplishment of mine, I’d feel that I’m important enough to society to slake my thirst for, well, importance.

In any case, besides having a Wikipedia article to boost my ego (haha), there’s just a lot that I want to do in life.

OMGN

I really want to be able to get OMGN running as well as it was in the summer of 2006 during E3 coverage. The traffic OMGN is receiving these days isn’t way below what it was getting then, but it isn’t as high. I really want to improve the quality of the site and actually have enough of a monetary flow to pay a couple writers and an editor. Unfortunately, that’s a long ways away and I don’t have enough time to dedicate to OMGN to build it up that big.

Lead Development

I’d like to become a lead developer in the near future at my work, and then continue moving upward into more managerial positions. Not a lot of software engineers / web developers / whatever the hell you want to call me make it that far, nor do they even want to. But I do. I want to see more of the business side of my profession because I want to learn both sides to it. Knowledge is power.

Master’s Degree

I’d love to get my master’s degree in Computer Science. I know I can do it, I’ve taken the undergraduate equivalents to a few of them at UNLV, the only difference from the graduate-level course being I didn’t have to write up a big report.

Teach

I want to teach some day, preferably in the high school grade levels. The only way that will work, of course, is if Laura and I are in a financial position for me to make that little money. Otherwise, it’s collegiate teaching for me. Either way, this one has to wait until we have more money for a) me to not need a high-paying job, or b) me to get my master’s degree then likely a PhD.

Work For Myself

This could be accomplished via OMGN getting really big, but I eventually want to end my “working career” by working for myself. I want to run my own business, have employees, all that jazz. If that happens, it means I will have achieved a nice success in building something that is truly mine to offer.

Those are just a few things I want to do in life… I have a feeling I won’t get to them all, but for now, I’d really like to not feel like a tiny, tiny fish in a universe full of monstrous sea life. I mean, what quantifiable positive impact do I have on society as a whole? Not much… Not much.

Really, I’d just love to find funding for OMGN. That’s my top choice right now. Well, funding, or for some inexplicable reason it takes off and funds itself.

On a side note: Don’t go galavanting off thinking you’re going to write a Wikipedia article about me that is meaningless! I’ve already seen Wikipedia remove articles that didn’t offer any useful information. :p