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Affilliation
60 Minutes ’till Lights-Out
["What's Your Coffe Bean and Tea Leaf Story?" entry. If you like it, please vote for me here!]
“Would you like some cappuccino, soldier?”
I turned around to find the professor we rescued holding two steaming cups in hand.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Unlike the other parts of the city, this café appears to have survived relatively intact,” explained the professor. “They appear to have eaten much of the food, but the coffee, milk, and other drinks were relatively untouched. Given their instinctive behavior, I’m not surprised.”
The professor sat down at a nearby chair. I took a cup and had a sip. It was frothy.
“It has milk.” I observed, rather stupidly on hindsight.
The professor smiled gently. “It’s supposed to. It’s cappuccino.”
I had to chuckle. “Sorry ‘bout that. I’ve kind’ a gotten used to the trash we had at the base. Fancy coffee like this, it’s practically… alien.”
Like them, I didn’t add.
“Some would say that our appreciation for ‘fancy coffee’ shows we’re still human.”
My watch blinked silently. I stood up.
“60 minutes ‘till lights-out. I need to gather the other survivors so we can prepare the barricades to keep the creatures out.”
The professor also stood. “Let me do that corporal. You stay here and enjoy your cup.”
I watched him go inside the café calmly. Then I faced the north road where tomorrow’s rescue transport should arrive from, assuming we survive the night. The creatures haven’t attacked in two nights, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost our trail. If we’re lucky, we should be on our way to the fortified survivor’s camp tomorrow.
I had 59 minutes ‘till lights-out and fancy coffee in my hands. One way or another, this will be our last night in this city.
I took another sip. If we make it, I’ll make sure to have another cup with the professor.
No tags for this post.Gleemax Shutting Down
I just read over at ICv2 that Gleemax, WotC’s ambitious social-networking/hobby gaming site, will be shut down sometime in September. The announcement was made by Randy Buehler, WotC’s VP of Digital Games.
Wizards of the Coast has made the decision to pull down its Gleemax social networking site in order to focus on other aspects of our digital initiatives, especially Magic Online and Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We continue to believe that fostering online community is an important part of taking care of our customers, but until we have our games up and running at a quality level we can be proud of, it will be the games themselves that receive the lion’s share of our attention and resources.
Our plan is to shut down Gleemax completely sometime in September. (I can’t give a more exact date because the timing depends on what’s going on with other projects.) To those of you who have posted to Gleemax, I thank you for your contributions over the past year. It is community members like you that made this project worth trying, and it is your efforts and words that gave it heart. You should save your blogs by copying that text somewhere else. Meanwhile, I encourage you to head over to the Wizards forums. The Wizards online community continues to thrive, and there should be lots of fun stuff to talk about over the coming months, including our digital offerings.
ChattyDM has some commentary on the matter.
In related news, WotC is also “discontinuing their novel lines that do not relate directly to D&D or Magic“.
Wizards of the Coast today announced the decision to refocus publishing efforts on the company’s two core brands — Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. As part of this strategy, the Discoveries imprint will be discontinued after the end of the 2008 catalog year.
“There is still so much more to discover in the rich fantasy worlds of Magic and D&D,” said Casey Reeter, VP of Marketing for Wizards of the Coast. “Refocusing our publishing resources allows us to tell those untold stories and expand the reach of our core brands.”
Beginning in 2009, any novel or series that does not support these core brands will be removed from the publishing schedule. The 2008 publishing schedule will remain unchanged.
Even though I thought that the Gleemax project was a bit too big, I was really hoping it would succeed. Given D&D Insider (the success of which based on its current plans are still iffy to me), as well as the number of issues that still need to be fixed in MtGO, WotC does need to focus in its digital endeavors. Unfortunately, as the months went by, I didn’t see Gleemax moving along as quickly as it should have based on that it wanted to accomplish. So, the fact that the master plan of an online hobby gaming hub is being put on hold for now wasn’t that big a surprise.
With all the brands it carries, WotC itself huge. MtG and D&D are probably their current revenue makers, so I can see why they would want to focus on those. I just hope their boardgame section (Avalon Hill) won’t suffer because of this focus.
Related links:
- Gleemax Farewell - official announcement
- Wizards to Refocus Publishing Efforts - official announcement
- WotC Pulls the Plug on Gleemax (ICv2)
- Gleemax is dead? (Critical Hits) - points to chatty
- Gleemax is Dead (ENWorld)
Nomad Video Game Log, 2008.07/25
Video Games
- Namco/Bandai Calms Hellgate: London Fans
- Hasbro Sues Scrabulous For Making Scrabble Popular Again, Hasbro Sues Makers of Scrabble-Like Scrabulous
- Forbes: MMOs As Business Primers
- Study: Subscription Fees Unappealing to Gamers
- Idolmaster, Japan’s Popular Idol Sim, Goes PSP
- Why a Fighting Game? Castlevania Creator Explains Himself
Video Games and Movies
- EA Dives Into Film Industry
- Two-Episode Watchmen Series Set as a Prequel
- Video Game Movies “Not Creative Expression”
Lists
- Top 10 Most Ridiculous Undergarments Worn by Women in Video Games
- The 8 Worst Game Character Makeovers Ever
Thank you for watching “The Dark Knight” with us!
I’ve been too busy to post anything this past while, but I’ll take some time for this.
On behalf of my SO and our friend, we would like to thank all of you who graced us with your pressence in last night’s “The Dark Knight” Private Screening to celebrate our respective birthdays.
We hope you all had a good time. 
Busy Week
Yep, this week’s been so busy that I don’t even have the time to browse the internets for news. I don’t knwo what’s going on in the world, except for the fact that “The Dark Knight” is already out in theaters here in the Philippines.
No, I haven’t seen it. I’ll be seeing it next week with my closest friends and colleagues.
I’ve been so busy in fact that the only time I could steal for Warcraft 3 was some hours earlier, and Kalimdor was down at the time! So I decided to upgrade my Wordpress, but the freakin’ internet connection kept DCing on me!
Kongai was the only thing I was able to squeeze in. Unfortunately, the internet connection somehow knew when I was on the winning side and conveniently decides to take a breather in the worst possible times. Given the bad luck, I was ironically lucky to get a new card!
In spite of fate messing around with my internet connection, I thank the heavens that Kongai was designed to be casually playable. All the long days, it was the only thing that kept me sane.
Tags: Kongai, WarcraftMouse Guard: Fall 1152 (quick review)
A quick review of
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152
[Amazon][I got mine from Comic Quest]
The official description:
Mouse Guard is comic book written and illustrated by David Petersen. Each mini-series is six issues long and published by Archaia Studios Press as well as a collected hardcover edition [sic]. Villard will be publishing the softcover edition of Mouse Guard Fall 1152 in 2008.
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers that fight off intruders, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden village to another. The Guard patrol borders, find safeways and paths through dangerous territories and treacherous terrain, watch weather patterns, and keep the mouse territories free of predatory infestation. They do so with fearless dedication so that they might not just exist, but truly live. Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam, three such Guardsmice, are dispatched to find a missing merchant mouse that never arrived at his destination. Their search for the missing mouse reveals much more than they expect, as they stumble across a traitor in the Guard’s own ranks.
- “Mouse Guard: Fall 1152″ is about…
… mice living like people in a medieval setting. Aside from this, everything else is so-far realistic (their “monsters” are wolves, snakes, etc. No fictional monsters).
- This review is based on…
… reading the collected paperback.
- My background stuff on this is/are..
… comics. I first got wind of it when I ran into a news item regarding RPG being developed based on the comic. The title “Mouse Guard”, plus the nicely drawn image of 3 mice that looked like RPG characters piqued my interest (that’s basically the pic on the left).
- It’s similar to…
… nothing I’ve previously seen.
- It reminds me of…
… a mature kid’s book. The plot, though not overly simplistic, is not overly complex. However, people, or rather mice, die here, folks.
- The aesthetics are…
… cool! I loved the art!
- The cool thing/s is/are...
… the art! It’s what got me interested in the first place.
… the characters. The art and the way the characters behave in given situations shows a lot of personality (if not depth).
… there are no humans! I didn’t want a Stewart Little, and I didn’t get it! No mouse/human interaction. In fact, there appears to be no humans in their world at all!
- I didn’t quite like…
… that there was no magic. I was expecting LOTR in a mouse world setting, which I erroneously assumed to include magic. There was none.
… that the main villain’s motivation didn’t feel well developed.
… that most of the characters, though well characterized, seem thinly developed. It may be too much to ask for, though, since this is the first in a somewhat action oriented comic series.
… the fact that it was too short!
- Overall…
… I like it! It’s a bit on the short and shallow side, but it has charm and personality, so like it. I hope that the motivations for each character gets deeper as the series progresses. I’m looking forward to the next mini-series.
- My final recommendation on Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 is…
… get it if you like the art.
… get it if you want a simple story in that setting with a twist.
… don’t get it if you’re expecting heavy magic or a human/animal relationship type story.
- Don’t forget…
… it has medieval mice with non-fictional “monsters”!
Kongregate’s Kongai has been released!
All the cards I earned by playing Kongregate’s Card Challege games these past months will finally be put to use! David Sirlin announced in his website that Kongai, one of the games he’s been designing, is already released to the public!
Here’s a description from David:
What is this virtual card game that I’ve been working on forever? Now you can find out for yourself here. It’s deceptively simple in that you only make about two clicks per turn: first choose your fighting range, then choose amongst attack / inercept / rest / switch characters. And yet I think you’ll find it tests the interesting skills of yomi (reading the mind of the opponent) and valuation (judging the relative value of moves in a game).
It turns out, I only missed 6 cards (ergo 6 weeks) since the card challenges started. Since you get to pick 3 additional cards from the ones you don’t have yet, I basically missed only 3 cards.
BTW, in case you didn’t realize it, the game is free. You get to pick 3 cards for your “starter” (3’s all you need to play the basic game) and earn more cards by playing the game or by completing the weekly Card Challenges in Kongregate.
Go try Kongai out yourself! If you need some info, tips, or links to the card list, check out Kongregate Wiki’s Kongai page.
Nomad Tech, Robot Log 2008.07/10
Tech
- Google’s Open Source Protocol Buffers Offer Scalability, Speed
- Poker program battles humans in Vegas - It would really suck if this machine ate your money.
- PDF format becomes ISO standard
- My Yahoo Drops ‘Beta,’ Paves Way to OpenSocial Apps
- Firefox 3 Beefs up Page Info
- Owner Of Infamous JPEG Patent Tries To Line Jump The Re-Exam Process
- Exploring Lively, Google’s Virtual World
Tech Opinion
Robots
- Polar Robots to Explore the Arctic
- Dean Kamen’s Robot Arm Grabs More Publicity
- 8 Classic Movie Robots That Actually Suck at Their Job
- Dancing microrobots waltz on a pin’s head
- ‘Flying Humvee’ robot ships supplies to military troops
Science
Others
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