Games Are Life

Update 36 Looks Amazing!

Update 36 is locked and loaded right now on the Lamannia preview server. Meaning the release notes are out too. I don’t have time to wander on Lamannia, and I never preview new content anyway. But I had time to read the release notes … and … wow. I mean WOW!!! With a capital WOW and several exclamation points!!!! This is a big, big update. The biggest I can remember since way back in the day when…

Sometimes when I am thinking about things they start to coalesce into word s and I know they are going to become a blog post. Except this time I was not so sure – I feel like I am just sharing my joy, because it is quite joyful, or at least it fills me with joy. Your results may vary. But it quickly occurred to me that this might be more bragging than sharing. That was certainly not my intent,…

50 Ways to Please Your Landlord

Sometime last week I started idly remembering jobs I’d had and how unusual some of them seemed, at least in retrospect. And even more, how many of them there were. Once I realized I was counting, I got to twenty almost immediately, estimating I could probably get to 50 if I put my mind to it. I assumed I’d have to be pretty specific, itemizing assignments I’d had while doing staff work. But no, I…

Cross-Country, With Cats: Under the Kansas Sky

It’s day four of our cross-continental journey and we’re on the home stretch; we can feel it. There is a pressure now that was not present before. No one wants to stop at rest areas. No one needs to stretch for a few minutes. It is all go go go, let’s get this thing wrapped up once and for all. Fortunately, the path we are on today is conducive to this sort of urgency, as today we traverse…

Cross-Country, With Cats: Goodbye, South, and Good Riddance

Day three was the first day in more than 13 years where I was no longer a resident of the South. This is more significant than simply no longer living in North Carolina. The South is bigger and more meaningful. And, from my point of view, worse. Much worse. I am not a fan of the South. I realize that many are, maybe even some who might read this column. I apologize in advance for the offenses I…

Cross-Country With Cats: Nowhere Near the Bourbon Trail

When I woke up I realized that it was my first day in over a decade where I no longer live in North Carolina. This was obviously not a surprise, but nonetheless it felt profound. And significant. A whole lot of life lies ahead of me, and none of it will take place in North Carolina. — I don’t remember much about Kentucky. Not that it isn’t memorable, I am sure it is, but because I was very…

Cross-Country, With Cats. Day One.

And they’re off An epic journey should yield epic tales, stories of heroism that will echo through the ages. Think Ulysses, or Beowulf, or Darwin on The Beagle. Epic journeys and epic tales. Using that as a scale, my recent adventures in multiple state crossings seem rather mundane. Which is fine, because that means I only have to come up with mundane tales and stories, which I am rather…

Slowing the Rate of Tripe Production: A Semi-Retirement Announcement

Tomorrow is a day of change. Tomorrow, I wake up, pack two cars, and head for the mountains. New apartment, new life, new everything. There is another change that has been brewing and I think it makes the most sense to include all of the changes at once, ripping the great big change-bandaid off as quickly as possible, hoping to lessen any pain. — (more…)

Looming Lizards! Everyone – actually nearly everyone, there is always an outlier or two – rolled up Dragonborn to take the new race out for a spin in new content. New race, new content, double new! The new content is level ten on Heroic, while everyone’s characters were first-life level sevens, no past lifes, no TR banks, just pure and innocent and level seven the way it used be back in 2006. So…

Today’s Bing photo is a truly spectactular ani-gif of the Yinlianzhui Waterfalls in China. I can’t find a way to link to the image, you’ll just have to go to Bing yourself – today, while it is still the daily image – and check it out. If you can’t, here’s a link to a much lesser video of the same falls, nowhere near as spectacular as the Bing version, but it will serve to give you a taste. I…

Sitting On A Rock At the Bay

Watchin’ the ships roll in … Unlike Otis Redding, this is not the Frisco Bay, and has nothing whatsoever to do with leaving Georgia. Nonetheless, a powerful picture.   Sitting on a rock of the bay, wastin’ time I like how perfect the various siege engines look, each one flawlessly curved and identical, clearly a flock of copy/paste origins, but impressive in spite of their cookie cutterness.…

Goodbye, favorite restaurant The sands are running out of the North Carolina hourglass, each moment bringing us that much the closer to our final escape. I make it sound like a giant, state-shaped prison, but that is unfair. Lots of people love this state and I’m sure they don’t need me telling them they are wrong. I can’t even say they are wrong, only that this is not the state for me. Or for my…

Marquoz of Rigel Comes to Eberron

You know the last thing I need? The very last thing? I think it is another character on Sarlona. Nonetheless, a new race exists and must be explored, even if only the casual kind of exploration I do now. Thus was born Marquoz of Rigel, 7th level Dragonborn Warlock, and my 21st Sarlonan. Marquoz of Rigel I find it interesting that after all these years, I created a new Marquoz only two months ago,…

Update 35 is Reincarnating Reincarnation

Today is, surprisingly, Update 35 Day. Or at least it is surprising to me, I know others have been following along more closely, perhaps it is less surprising to those who make the effort to remain informed. The main method of disbursing game news seems to have become a series of Twitch streams, and since I don’t watch Twitch I am no longer one of the informed. But this is not about me, this is…

In some ways, every day that I wake up is the same as ever. Bleary-eyed, I brush teeth, weigh myself, and make coffee before sitting down to write. In most ways, every day that I wake up is different now. We are living in an extended stay suite while I finish off my notice period at work. Yes I am brushing my teeth except now that happens on a whole different floor from where we sleep. The coffee…

No idea where this shot was taken. Or why. Well, maybe I can guess at the why. /Flexing does not happen by accident, clearly I posed this, even if I no longer recall when or where. I am surprised that the frog appears in the reflection. I mean, the frog should appear in the reflection, but it just seems like the kind of thing that usually someone forgets to do. The frog’s name is Ragtime. It is a…

PSA: March of the Bears

It seems that the (enormously well-named) Jeoffree of Cannith is agitating to get Standing Stone Games to add dye to the game for animal forms. This particular group of developers does not have a great track record of responding to grouped player activism (read the comments not just the article), but that was then and this is now. Different company, different producer, maybe that will add up to…