Sony's new PS3 peripheral a girl's best friend?

So my friend Matthew Smith (http://www.dawgeth.com) and I were talking the other night in an IRC channel about some of our favorite gaming consoles. Something came out along the way about how I had heard of a possible price drop for the Wii sometime this year if they were to compete with the other systems this year. Microsoft has Project Natal, a hands-free motion sensing technology that lets you use your body as a controller and thats due out for this years holiday season. And then theres Sony's wand... Matthew sent me an image link of the device which in theory is supposed to be similar to that of the Wii's controller, hence a reason for a price drop on that console. Now I'll give you a few moments to really look at it and see what the first thing is that comes to mind...

... really... take a moment...

Ok now, doesn't that look like a friggin dildo? I really shouldn't know these things... but it looks like its got all the right curves for every girls secret desire. I wonder if this is Sony's idea of appealing to female gamers. "I cant get a dildo for my Xbox 360 so I went with the PS3."

If that wasn't bad enough, Sony uses this technology in their controllers that they call "Dualshock" (its really just a couple of badly balanced motors) which creates a vibration for that extra sensory when playing games. I can only imagine this vibration technology being introduced into these wands.

Anyone remember the Harry Potter brooms that recalled because girls got a little too excited when they discovered their brooms could vibrate? Or how about recently... the full-sized Team Jacob and Edward pillows for girls to sleep with. I'm thinking marketing is getting a little bit too risky these days with kids...

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Warforged Update!

So last night I submitted my warforged warlock to my dm to get approval and to see if there was any suggestions as to improve or change anything. Turns out that I do need to make a few changes to fit the world and the background but there is nothing major. I'll post an update after I get that done and submitted. Anyways, he went to explain what he pictures this character to be and let me tell you that this guy is a genius! Take a look at what he wrote.

I'm imagining a warforged whose metal is rusted red/brown; wood pieces black and slick, like dead wood in a forest; the slight smell of compost; sprouts of living plants from some joints and intersections of plates; eyest that glow a bright, verdant green; and, this ironwood root structure spiked gauntlet, with four inch unbreakable thorns which seem impossibly sharp...

Now I dont know about you but that like totally opened up all sorts of ideas as to what this character might look like to someone who may have stumbled upon him in the middle of an old forest. So its all I've been able to think about today is what my character may look like. Above is what I've drawn so far and I know that it really doesn't look like theres a whole lot of wear and tare on this guy aside from the cracked brow. What I see is an old vine thats draped over the top of his head... he's maybe got a mushroom or some kind of fungus growing out of his neck. A tree or some kind of plant has taken root near his legs and has formed around him over the last several hundred years to claim the character as a part of the plant. And that spiked gauntlet is in a tangle of vines. My character is a prisoner of the forest and the plants his prison until he is awakened once more...

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I will be a Warforged Warlock

Previously I posted about how I was prepping to become a dungeon master so I could have an easier time setting up a group since DM's can be hard to find. Turns out I was wrong because after joining a group on meetup.com for local D&D players I've now found a position as a player in a group. Last night we got together for the first time so everyone could meet and we could get a feel for who people are. Among quite a bit of of socializing we got to hear about this world that our DM has created and played in for the last 10 years or so and dang this place is massive! Theres all sorts of history going on and events from previous campaigns that its almost overwhelming with how much there is to keep track of. Even the calendar is different... 9 days in a week, are you kidding me? goblins get free reign of the world on the sabbath? WHAT? I cant wait.

So as we were discussing the world we went around to see what everyone would like to play. Well the night before I had this great idea for a warforged warlock. Turns out that it would work great in this world since there "was" a guy creating warforged dudes in the worlds history and he was killed and no more warforged are being made. My dude will be a lost warforged, abandoned, in fact he wont even know who he is, where he came from, his purpose in life or any of that. All that he will know is that he was found and he has the ability to make things happen with the wave of his hands.

I spent some time this morning working on the character in the character builder from wizards. This is what I've come up with so far, pending review from the DM to see if its acceptable. I appologize for it not looking very pretty but you get what you get for now.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

Unknown, level 1

Warforged, Warlock

Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Constitution

Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact

FINAL ABILITY SCORES

Str 10, Con 18, Dex 10, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 16.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES

Str 8, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 16.

AC: 11 Fort: 14 Reflex: 12 Will: 15

HP: 30 Surges: 10 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS

Insight +5, Bluff +8, Intimidate +10, Arcana +6

UNTRAINED SKILLS

Acrobatics, Diplomacy +3, Dungeoneering, Endurance +6, Heal, History +1, Nature, Perception, Religion +1, Stealth, Streetwise +3, Thievery, Athletics

FEATS

Level 1: Reaper's Touch

POWERS

Warlock encounter 1: Witchfire

Warlock daily 1: Flames of Phlegethos

ITEMS

Spiked gauntlet

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

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Road to Dungeon Mastering

Reposted from Google Wave (http://wave.google.com)

After gaining some renewed interest in participating in an actual Pen and Paper RPG I'm finding that the only real way to start playing is by becoming a Dungeon Master myself. I only have very brief experience in playing Dungeons & Dragons so I have a long rocky road ahead of me.

Why am I doing this?

Frankly, I'm bored. I need something to entertain myself and open up my creative mind to new experiences. I'm getting tired of playing video games anymore and I am looking to do something that takes a bit more than just a point and click to accomplish.

What am I doing to prepare myself?

So I cheated, I have the entire 4th edition library at my disposal thanks to online resources. I have adventures, books, magazines all in pdf format that I can glance at as needed. I also have Dungeon Mastering for Dummies and Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies, both designed to help new and experienced users get a better grasp of the game. I've also picked up a set of my own dice finally. This is something I've always looked at doing in the past but just haven't felt the need to actually put money down on it.

I think for now the idea is to read as much as I can about dungeon mastering and about being a player so I have a good grasp of the rules. This way when I do start up a campaign things can run more smoothly and I wont have to spend a whole lot of time researching rules I should know off the top of my head. So far I'm starting with the dummies books. I've had lots of success with these in the past for various other topics and I trust them to give me a good understanding. I'll go through the official books afterwards, this way when the books go into detail I can focus less on terminology and more on the real rules, keeping the tips I've already learned fresh in my head.

Who will I be playing with?

I have a few friends that have tried playing before but didn't have much success getting into it due to time issues. Of course theres is always the internet if all else fails. Nothing wrong with a little skype action and I know theres software that can be used. Especially with google wave, it'd make for a great platform to run a good game. I dont know for certain who will be playing but I'm sure if I looked hard enough I can get some people to play.

When will I start?

This depends on a couple of things. When am I comfident enough to run people through an adventure and ready to risk the potential of having it all fall apart? How much do I know the rules? Who all is going to play and where will we meet? Its kind of a process to put this all together and its not something I've always been good at. Dan's house is probably the best place if they decide they want to play. Just because they are the ones with kids and its easier for them if they dont have to find someone to watch the kids to leave the house. Of course they could always bring the kids along for the evening and thats fine too, but then I'd have to find a place other than my place because my dogs and their kids is not a good idea.

What is the future of my P&P RPG experience?

I'm a Star Wars geek much more than I am a fan elves, dragons and magics. I think the next step would be to take my experience as a DnD DM and move towards the Star Wars Roleplaying game since it still uses the same D20 system that DnD does. I cant even imagine how much fun it would be to roleplay a character with his own lightsaber or perhaps even my very own Han Solo-like character. I think thats the direction I'd like to take this ultimately.

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Interactive Gaming Addiction

Written for my WR 121 class, Fall Term 2008

After the release of World of Warcraft in November of 2004, several million players have become increasingly engrossed within the virtual world created by Blizzard Entertainment. When I say several million, it was just a few weeks ago when the folks at Blizzard officially announced they now have over 11 million monthly subscribers to their online game. At $15 a month per subscription, Blizzard has certainly hit the mark when it comes to feeding into an ever-growing problem around the world. Even websites like Olganon (Online Gamers Anonymous) and GamerWidows have been developed as a direct reaction the epidemic of addicted gamers. But what do we do to solve the problem?

In Short, the game takes place in a virtual world where players interact with other players around the world fulfilling various tasks and duties. Each player controls their very own persona in which they pursue careers as a mighty warrior or the weak mage who packs a ferocious fireball. Many players even choose to play multiple personas to vary their role within the game. The almost cartoony art style to the game gives World of Warcraft its distinct look from the other online worlds out on the market today such as Everquest II, Age of Conan, and EVE Online.

Why might a person decide to play an online game? For me it was rather simple, I enjoy games already and I enjoy socializing with people online so playing an online game was a natural fit for me. I have always been kind of anti-social outside any online setting and World of Warcraft allows me to fulfill my desire for some sort of interaction with other people. Others may have joined the game because of a friend or spouse who already play just to gain the attention of the person they know who can’t seem to escape from the virtual reality. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons people would pick up the game. The problem is figuring out how to put the game back down.

What makes games like World of Warcraft so addictive? The trouble with online games is there is no real end to them, the worlds are persistent. Life within the game continues when you are not even logged in. The first goal for most players is to reach the highest obtainable level to be among the best players in the world. After reaching the highest level, then there are upgrades to armor and weapons to obtain. However, these upgrades aren’t that easy to obtain, more times than not the gear a player is looking for requires a group of other players to get to after several hours of working together. Even then the chance for the item being found is completely random thus making the players repeat the task over and over until his desired item is discovered. For example, an item I needed to upgrade my online persona took almost a year to recover after several attempts every week at 6 hours per encounter. “Online games such as World of Warcraft clearly demand more from their players than your average first-person shooter or sports game. To play all parts of the game calls for skills that takes time and perseverance to develop.” (Levin) There is always the next goal in an online game, and with the recent release of Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King there are all sorts of brand new goals for almost every WoW player.

The price a player pays from their online addiction can be any number of things. Loss of job, failure in school, loss of friends and family, eating disorders, physical disorders and even death are all reported issues that have been a result of online gaming addiction. At first glance you wouldn’t think of death being a result of wow addiction but it was reported last year that a Korean couple was charged last year when their 4-month old daughter died while they were playing WoW at a nearby internet café. It isn’t just Warcraft causing the problem either, a man in South Korea died from exhaustion after playing yet another Blizzard title, Starcraft, for 50 straight hours. On a more personal level, I’ve lost jobs after several late night marathons in the virtual world and have struggled with school work as a result.

So how does a player deal with their addiction to an online virtual world? In China, all persons 18+ are limited to the amount of time allowed to play in an online game by the government. Maybe a similar course of action should be required to be enforced on the software companies that develop these games. “… many gamers wind up begging for help in online support groups rather than seeking out mental health professionals.” (Kennedy) There are a number of 12-step programs out there to feed the adopted term of “internet addiction” in which Olganon.org has adopted from the folks of Alcoholics Anonymous. The treatment of WoW addiction isn’t just for the players , but for the people effected in their lives as well, GamerWidows.com is one such website for players to discuss the addictions of the people they know and how to seek help. “The American Psychiatric Association is considering adding video game addiction to the next edition of its diagnosis book for mental health professionals.” (Jackson)

Online addiction to games is an ever-increasing problem and with new online games coming out in the not so distant future, I don’t see the problem going away any time soon. There needs to be some kind of regulation set in place for the people who may have a harder time avoiding this sort of problem to keep from getting it so it doesn’t affect their lives and the lives of the people around them. I have an idea, the next time you hear a co-worker, classmate or friend talking about their online encounters within a game, ask if they’d like to chill sometime and get them away from the game. As we say within the game, “Life > WoW.”
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Saying Goodbye

... to the World of Warcraft. This will be the 5th time (I think, may be more) I've tried to quit the game and hopefully this time I'll actually succeed. Its true what they say on the news and in the newspaper about its addictiveness compared to heroine. Its hard to leave behind the thrill for adventure, playing a persona where you can be whatever you desire. I could be a complete asshole if I feel like it and no one would know me any different. I'm constantly looking for ways to expand on my character and play with others. But this time I've decided its gotta be the end. I spend more time playing WoW than I do working on what I need to on my own life. I have higher priorities that need to take place where WoW has taken control. So here is to hoping I can stay away, once and for all. Wish me luck.
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