An Exclusive Club Called 'Anybody'

I haven't decided if I'm actually going to play the beta or not... I'm having a hard enough time finding reasons to play any MMO these days.

Coming soon, MoP stuff... or not...

The post where I act like an iPhone fan boy then review a game

Hello again, internet friends.

It's been about a month since my last post. I apologize.

I recently purchased an iPhone, joining the ranks of hipsters and teen girls everywhere. Admittedly, I am madly in love with the device. (Almost) everything is so much simpler on the iPhone, compared to the comparatively antiquated BlackBerry I was using before.

But this post isn't a commercial for Apple, so I digress.

In an effort to explore my newfound mobile freedoms, I've been trying out a handful of mobile games. To this point my history with mobile games has been less than memorable. Aside from the occasional, mindless board game port, I can safely say I have hated nearly every game I have ever paid to play on a 2 inch screen (I'm not sure why I didn't see that coming).

*Insert a smooth segue to a game review.*

Warfare Inc.

This one may be kind of a softball review, as the game is, according to its website, "the critically acclaimed and best selling mobile real time strategy (RTS) game of all time!!!"

I could probably end the review here, as the three exclamation points pretty much let you know you're in good hands.

Basically, I was really craving an RTS to play on my phone, and after downloading a bunch, this one seemed to be the best. The easiest way to describe Warfare Inc. is to say "Hey, did you every play Starcraft? Yes? Well, imagine cramming the graphics onto your cell phone and getting interrupted by texts in the middle of getting zerged."

Add the Zerg, the Protoss, and better graphics. Simmer until golden brown.

Well, maybe that wasn't the easiest way... I'll let Warfare Inc. do my job for me:

"Warfare Incorporated is set in a future ruled by super corporations engaged in no-holds-barred competition for the resources of the galaxy. The action centers around the newly discovered planet Icarus with its astounding mineral wealth and mysterious alien relics. Players take the role of a junior executive at the underdog ACME Exploration Corporation, discoverer of Icarus, and work their way up the corporate ladder by demonstrating their strategic and tactical skills in a campaign of increasingly challenging missions. Early missions concentrate on resource gathering and combat with ACME's chief rival OMNI Industries and as the game develops other factions and the power of the alien technologies come into play."

So, we know what the game is; but is it fun to play? Yes (mostly). The game, while addictive and challenging in all the ways an RTS game should be, lacks personality. Instead of Jim Raynor as your protagonist, you have some dopey looking guys in suits and bowties.

P.S. Do you like my bowtie?

Realistically, the game is a probably your best bet if you're looking for a true RTS game on your mobile device. Even though Starcraft did it better, Warfare Inc. did it portably, which is good enough for me.

Graphics - 2/10
The graphics remind me of Bone Storm. Yes, that Bone Storm.

Wow, and all I did was enter my name; Thrillhouse.

Playability - 8/10
The game was pretty simple and straightforward. The touch screen controls work well for an RTS game. Units default to moving single file, leading to many untimely and frustrating massacres.

Difficulty - 8/10

Admittedly, I was getting stomped by OMNI jerks by level three. But, I have to assume that anyone who has had the game for more than a week would fare a little better.

Replay Value - 9/10

RTS games are always good for maximum replay value.

Overall - 7/10

The Internet Goes Dark...

In protest of SOPA and PIPA, websites around the world have censored themselves today, giving users a grim glimpse into the future of the internet if SOPA and PIPA are passed.

I urge all of you to contact your representatives, and tell them to withdraw support, or continue opposing these pieces of legislation.

SOPA and PIPA Could Mean the Death of the Internet as We Know it.

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I need to help spread the message about yet another congressional attack on our freedoms.

I'll direct you to eff.org's description of the bills:

The Internet Blacklist bills — the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) — would have a disastrous effect on online freedom of speech. In order to understand the ways a site placed on the blacklist could be denied a chance to connect with an audience, we’ve used our Free Speech is Only as Strong as the Weakest Link chart

PLATFORMS & WEBHOST

The Internet Blacklist bills would subject non-domestic platforms and webhosts to the possibility of court injunctions that could require to payment interruptions or even DNS blocking in the U.S. Preparing for and responding to this legal action would be expensive, and would create an incentive for those platforms to impose more restrictions on user uploads. Further, platforms that haven't yet been developed will have more difficulty getting off the ground without a legal team.

PAYMENT

The Internet Blacklist Legislation would allow the U.S. government and individual rights holders to seek court orders requiring payment processors and ad networks to stop doing business with blacklisted sites – even if those sites contain non-infringing content.

DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM

The Internet Blacklist Legislation would require service providers to limit access to a blacklist of sites that the attorney general or a court has deemed to be infringing. PIPA explicitly mentions DNS blocking as the technique to block sites.  The latest version of SOPA requires only “the least burdensome, technically feasible, and reasonable means designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order” but also that  “Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible." But, realistically, the consensus is that DNS blocking, in spite of its tendency to fracture the Internet geographically, is the technique ISPs are most likely to use.

SEARCH

Under the Internet Blacklist Legislation search engines would be required to remove blacklisted sites from their results. PIPA uses the term "information location tools", which refers to section 512(d) of the DMCA. SOPA refers to "Internet search engines", and requires them to "prevent the serving, in response to a query, of a direct hypertext link" to a blacklisted site.

For more information, and to easily write your representative in congress:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/13/1044899/-House-Judiciary-Committee-to-pass-SOPA-this%C2%A0week?detail=hide

A great video hosted by TotalBiscuit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM&feature=g-all-lik&context=G27f82f8FAAAAAAAACAA

http://americancensorship.org/

Mists of Pandaria

If you're any type of Warcraft fan at all, by now you've surely heard that Blizzard has announced the next expansion in the WoW series will be Mists of Pandaria- and if this is breaking news to you, perhaps you need to relocate from under your rock more often.

I haven't quite made up my mind how I feel about some of the proposed changes, so I want to let them fester in my brain a few days before I comment.

Coming soon- Paladin-Bias rages -or- raves about Mists of Pandaria!

Time-Lost-Freakin' Proto Drake!

Well, it finally happened... I've killed the TLPD!

For anyone that has been following my to-do list posts, killing the TLPD has been something I've been trying to do since WOTLK was released. Prior to today I'd only ever found a corpse of the rare spawn- despite probably 10 or more Vyragosa kills.

Given the lull I'm feeling with the Cataclysm at the moment, I decided to invest some time into farming this mount (not so much farming as it was AFK'ing with the volume all the way up). I played a lot of Madden, watched youtube or movies, but generally didn't do anything WoW related while camping- which certainly saved my sanity, although it absolutely killed my /played time.

A lot of credit goes to NPCscan- if you don't have this mod already, go download it now!

Living up to its name, it has taken me way too much time to find and kill the Time-Lost Proto Drake (I don't even want to estimate an actual number of hours), so now it's time to pick my next camping target- Poseidus or the statues in Uldum... any suggestions?

Pre-Cataclysm To-Do List Re-Revisited

I thought it would be fun to take a third and final look at my pre-Cata to-do list now that we're well into the expansion.

For those of you that don't know, wayyy back in June I posted my list of things I wanted to accomplish before the release of Cataclysm. I figure with the 4.01 patch presumably being released tomorrow, now is a good time to take a look and see how well I did!

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• Finish the Insane achievement!
• Finish my "Salty" title.

Get exalted with Hydraxian Waterlords.

Get exalted with Silverwing Sentinals.

Get Exalted with The League of Arathor.

Get the Battlemaster achievement.

Get Shadow's Edge (and Ideally Shadowmourne).

Get the achievement for 100k honorable kills (55k 39k 20k to go).

Kill King Krush to finish Frostbitten grr.

Get all of the argent tournament tabards.

Complete the Hero of Shattrah feat of strength achievement.

Finish my AQ quest chain.

Get all the blacksmithing recipes I still need.

Compete my old class sets: D1, D2, T1, T2, and AQ set.

Farm the following mounts:

[Deathcharger's Reins] from Stratholme.
[Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake] from Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
[Reins of the Azure Drake] from Eye of Eternity.
[Reins of the Dark War Talbuk] from Nagrand.
[Reins of the Green Proto-Drake] from the mysterious egg.
[Reins of the Onyxian Drake] from Onyxia's lair.
[Reins of the Raven Lord] from Anzu in Sethekk Halls.

[Sea Turtle] from fishing.
[Reins of the White Polar Bear] from Brunhildar dailies.
[Reins of the Twilight Drake] from Obsidian Sanctum 3 drakes, 25 man.
[Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth] sold in Dalaran.
[Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake] rare spawn.
[Swift Alliance Steed] from ToC tribute chest.[Mimiron's Head] from Yogg Saron.
[Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake] from the Ulduar 25 meta achievement.
[Invincible's Reins] from Lich King hard mode...

[Argent Hippogryph] from the argent tournament.

[Ashes of A'lar] from Kael.
[Crusader's White Warhorse] from ToC tribute chest.

• Farm the following pets:

[Giant Sewer Rat] from fishing in Dalaran.
[Ice Chip] from the Midsummer event.
[Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw)] rare drop in STV.

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Still struggling with some drops, but I made some huge dents in this list. How do you think I did?