[snipped from my full blog]

We've (Kristy and I) both been playing a fair bit of Eve Online lately. I know I've been playing a lot more than Kristy has. When I'm the only one home, that's what I tend to do. My character, Rintaran, is now around 3 million skill points. He's turning out to be a well-built combat unit. Yesterday, when I got in from work, I had over 7 million credits. I then went out and spent it all to aquire a horde more skill books. Many of the new skills I picked up would improve my missile usage, shields, or drones. Some of them will allow me to utilize new equipment, basically the few items that I currently can't use (Rigs, Target-painters, Electronic warfare, etc). By the time I stopped running missions, I was back up over 2 million credits. This is not my first bankrupting run of skill purchases, which may explain why I'm getting up there in skills. It also may explain why I'm still just running missions in a mere cruiser when I could have already picked up and equiped a battlecruiser or better. I've managed to max-out my Engineering, and am most of the way toward maxing out my Gunnery skill.

The corporation that I own, Xanteeous, now has an account with over 2 million credits thanks to my mission running and some of the equipment sales that I have decided to put toward the corporation. Currently, the only members of the corporation are Kristy and myself. I'm hoping that some of our friends may join the game and enter Xanteeous. That's one of the reasons why I've trained up Ethnic Relations a bit (thereby allowing non-Minmatar characters to join the corp). I'm still working toward our long-term goal of building a starbase, but that's a ways off and we'll need crew to defend it. I think we may have to start actually advertising the corporation and trying to pick up additional members. We can't have just the two of us and expect to rise to any sort of power.

Today Eve Online is releasing their Revelations II upgrade, so it's down until about 10:00pm EST tonight. This upgrade brings a lot of excellent changes. For one, a gang can now get credit for completing a mission, as opposed to the person who picked up the mission. Basically, before you could go in on a mission, and although your gang members would gain some credits for the individual kills, only the person with the actual mission could gain the mission rewards and loyalty points from the agents. Starting tomorrow, those profits can be split among everyone in the gang. Although I generally don't require help in my missions, it would be nice to be able to bring Kristy, or any future corp members with me. Similarly, I wouldn't mind providing assistance to other people's missions, since I'll now gain the benefit of the rewards. Additionally, the loyalty points will no longer be restricted to the individual agent, but the corporation that the agent works for, and you can view a catalog of loyalty point rewards, so you don't have to take that crappy back of 100 heavy widowmaker missiles, when you don't have anything that can launch them or the skill for it. These are some nice updates that I think will make things a lot more interesting. They've also built up the starbase aspect and added a handful of skills (including heat management). A few of them I'm going to have to pick up as soon as I can. Depending on their pricing, that may be tomorrow. If anyone reading this currently plays Eve and is interested in joining my corp, just send me an in-game message.

Right, so I neglected to post anything concerning this yesterday and was politely reminded by an article that showed up today on canada.com. This past year, the web has begun to float with staged and unstaged videos of students fighting on school property. These videos were recorded on cell-phones or with portable cameras. The cameras have not been allowed on school property for a while, but things have just become harsher for the current generation of tech-heads.

Here's the canada.com article. You'll notice that it's talking about high schools, mostly in the United States, banning IPods and other devices. This trend is hardly unique to our American neighbours. A couple weeks ago, my home board, District School Board Ontario North East, passed a resolution to handle this same problem (read the policy here). Essentially, the new policy forbids the presence of cellphones and mp3 players (in student possessi from school property during regular school hours (roughly 8:00am - 4:00pm). Previously, students were merely restricted to using their cell phones and mp3 players outside the school building, not that it really stopped too many of the grade 7 & 8 students at the school I'm currently finishing my placement at.

I'm split on this policy. On the one hand, I agree that while on school property, students should not have any need or use for a cellphone. The video recording capabilities of cell phones causes a great deal of trouble and is a safety and privacy concern. The audio recording abilities of new mp3 players is definitely problematic for cla$$room management as well. These are the aspects that the people who put forth the resolutions for the bans keep pumping out, and they are generally convincing when put to the test.

But, as a bit of a tech-head myself, this causes its own set of problems. At the bottom of the article on canada.com, it speaks about one place that actively gave its students Ipods for use in school to attend to specific lectures. This possibility is definitely something that could be a great asset to any school, especially as it actively plugs students in to both electronics and education simultaneously. According to reports from Duke, incidents of cheating has continued to decline, even with the addition of these potentially harmful devices. On top of that, I know that I've found some use for these devices as a part of my teaching. I use my cell-phone as a quick camera that students can then take photos from and use for a part of their biographies. Recording an audio or video clip can be a useful exercise and a part the media literacy curriculum (a part of the language arts curriculum). Having several of these cell cameras and audio recorders, on hand at school would be very beneficial and would help students to connect to the curriculum that must be addressed.

Thankfully, DSBONE's new policy only bans them from student use and display. I think, as a part of a cla$$ project, within the individual cla$$room for the duration of the project, it may be possible to get around the policy. However, if that is not the case, then it would mean that the teacher would be the sole individual in the cla$$room allowed to use any recording device. This, in effect, limits student involvement with technology, cutting them off from film and audio projects. Students would still be able to participate in the editing and acting process, but they could not be behind the camera or controlling the actual recording. Although this ensures that the equipment should remain safe and in proper functioning order, the limited student interactivity with the technology is something of a draw back and makes addressing some of the aspects of the media literacy curriculum more difficult.

On top of this, there is the potential trouble that could occur during student trips to school and home from school. Although the distance isn't particularly far, many parents and students like to have cell phones on them "just in case" during those travel situations. With the use and sight of cell phones banned completely, students cannot even turn it off and tuck it away as they enter school property. Which works as another drawback. And finally, if I were to bring up the effect that bans generally have, that is, that when something is banned, illegal usage skyrockets (ie. prohibition and weed), I think we're likely to see the more staged fights recorded, especially where cell phones and mp3 players are banned.

As I said, it's something of a divided issue and I can understand both the board's concern and that of parents/students/tech-profs.

Well, I've been up here in Timmins for three weeks now. Shortly before I left, I began playing Stalker and was really enjoying the game. Unfortunately, my laptop can't run it particularly well, and I keep getting bugs on Kristy's computer when I try to run it there. As a result, I've been almost devoid of gamage the entire time I've been here. One evening I read an interesting article and ended up downloading a demo of a game called 'Speare. 'Speare is a space-based shoot'm up game. As you go through the levels, you try to put back together the lines from Shakespeare's plays. You earn bonuses from a number of historical clues and such. The game, although relatively simple seems to hold some promise and according to the test data, has revitalized the interest of some students in the aged playwright. If they expand the game, and create similar products for other areas, this may provide some of the instant gratification that students seem to require these days. It looks like a potentially useful teaching tool, and I'll be watching to see where it goes in the future.

Today I picked up a new mp3 player. My previous one, a 512 MB IPod Shuffle, has not been the greatest as of late. The song selection is too limited and I've grown quite bored of it as a result of repeating the same songs too often. I often don't have time to just update what I have on there, especially through the onerous iTunes. So today, I picked up a 6 GB RCA Lyra. This thing has massive storage, now holding all of the music that I currently have on my system with plenty of space for more if I wanted to throw it on there. With the space that it has, I'll be able to use it as an external storage unit as well, which is another major benefit. The catch: it's not a flash drive but an actual hard drive. This makes it much more susceptable to shock damage, not that I'm particularly rough with my electronics. I could have saved the money and used it as a part of my upgrade package for my computer, but I really needed a new toy right about now.

Welcome back everyone.

I downloaded and played the demo for Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade. GRUC is an RTS, space game. The graphics are, admittedly, quite good in relation to the space texturing and atmosphere. It was very Eve Online in terms of its visuals. However, the ships looked a lot like molded platercine. They were very "plastic" as some reviewers on the forums mentioned. I did like the weapons customizability that is offered for the individual ships, but the size of the fleet is very limited by the look of the demo. Generally, the plot appeared to be interesting. Whether I could get through the entire deluge of scenarios in the real game, and maintain interest, I can't say. There are very few RTS games that I've gone through and finished (Heroes of Might & Magic? Civilizations? Do those count as RTS?). Still, I'll probably grab myself a copy of the game after the price drops a bit. I gave the game a tentative 7/10, via the demo. Once I get the chance to play the full version, we'll see how that changes.

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In union news, activity in The Writers' Lounge has dropped, basically dead since I posted my last March Break Daily Challenge. There've been a couple of posts since then, but not too many. I'm not entirely sure how we can get some activity going. The challenges didn't seem to get nearly as many posts as I had hoped, though the ones that have arrived are really good, and there are others promising that they will be posting in them in the future. I think I'm going to try another writing exercise on there, a collaborative story. Basically, one person writes a paragraph, then someone else writes a paragraph, then a third person, and so on. Basic rules, keep it clean, must have at least two other people between your two posts. It'll work as both a writing exercise, and it'll get some activity on the board so it doesn't get the death warning this month.

I recently joined The Neoswordmaster Company. This is a very new union dedicated to Neopets, Pokemon, Smash Brothers, and Final Fantasy (Kingdom Hearts included). I joined because the leader, a fellow member of The Writers' Lounge, and someone on my friends list invited me to join. I mentioned that I didn't really know too much about the games, but whatever. Anyhow, there's a writing contest over there too that I'm going to give a bit of a run at, and we'll see where it takes me. This union is struggling to get its feet planted right now, and so far hasn't had much in the way of posts. I've got a few up there, and for some reason, they decided to make me an officer today. As a new officer, I'm trying to rally the other officers so we can come up with an actual focus for the union. By having a focus, it can grow. And I'd like to see it grow.

Got an invite from someone else to join their Devil May Cry union. I've never played the game and have no idea who the guy is. That's why I declined the invite. Maybe I was invited because I like vampires, I dunno... There are vampires in that game right? *shrugs*

Managed to obtain my Neighbourly emblem for having more than 10 friends on GS. It brings my current emblem total to seven if you include the registered member emblem. No clue what emblem to aim for now though. Unless something comes up sooner, I'm probably going to be looking at the video, and v-blogging emblems coming next (if not serious collector or PC afficionado). We'll just have to wait and see.

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In other upgrade-related news, I've been flipping through the tech mags, mostly Maximum PC, to see the latest hardware and software reveiws. It looks like there's been a few shake-ups in the industry since the last time I was selling computer stuff, or obtaining parts to build my own. It seems that ATI has been obtained by AMD. Which is kinda cool, and presuming the transfer of power hasn't caused any setbacks in development, there's still some hope that ATI, er AMD DirectX10 graphics cards can be out and decent by the fall. Unforuntately, the chip wars (processors) hasn't fared as well it seems. Although AMD continues to obtain greater market share, Intel's chips are running circles around them. This sucks, in my opinion, since I'd prefer to run with an AMD chip, but want to have the best I can get at the moment. In the Fall, Intel will be releasing their new line of chips, using 45 nm technologly... AMD's first 45 nm processors aren't expected to be released until 2008 at the earliest. This is horrible news considering that 45 nm tech allows them to put more transistors on the chip, thereby increasing speed. By going from 65 nm to 45 nm tech, we're looking at a considerable growth in processor speeds coming this fall. A growth that is really going to hurt AMD (unless thier newly acquired ATI graphics cards come out relatively inexpensive and much better than NVidia's DirectX10 cards).

The issue of Maximum PC that I'm reading through (April 2007), also happens to contain their fifth annual softy awards. I figured I'd flip through and see what they're looking at. The first one on their list is CCleaner. This program empties your recycle bin, clears out old chkdsk file fragments, old prefetch data, and other little bits of junk that stick around on your computer after a program has been run. Best of all, it's a free application. I took this little baby for a test drive on Infernus Morte. I had over 1 GB of crap that it cleaned out for me. Afterwards I found that things were running a good bit smoother than I had been experiencing for quite a while. (I've since uninstalled and deleted another 49 GB of data/apps/games and defragged, which make it run nice and smooth).

Also on the list is GAIM. GAIM is a multi-platform instant messenger. I've been using Trillian for all of my IMing for the past five years, basically since they first came out. I even paid for the pro version, even though I could have gone by with just the free version quite well. I paid because I genuinely liked their service and wanted to ensure that they continued to work on their product. Unfortunately, they haven't had much of an upgrade for the past few years. And though they're working hard on a new version right now, that won't stop me from looking elsewhere while I wait. GAIM, like the basic Trillian, is also free. As far as functions go, it's definitely lacking. However, GAIM loads up much faster and seems a lot more stable than Trillian ever was. As of yet, I haven't had much in the way of programs locking up, only to be unlocked by closing GAIM (unlike what was happening frequently with Trillian). My Yahell connect has been more stable than when I was even using Yahell. As a result, I've switched over to GAIM, for now. It just has too much for me to waste anymore time on an older, less efficiant, and buggy messenger service.

The issue had a lot of other neat stuff in it, including plenty of case designs and other types of hardware that could make most hardware nuts drool a little bit. It turns out some of the stuff on my upgrade pricing list from my previous post were actually mentioned in the magazine (the seagate hard drive and the graphics card). I've been trying to decide whether I have the coin right now to get myself a subscription. I know it'd be cheaper than buying individual magazine, but I'm also going to be moving in a couple months, and having to change my mailing address for yet another subscription/service/bill/etc is a bit of a pain in the butt. Still, at $30 US for 12 issues, vs $9 US/issue, I think it just might be worth it.

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Anyhow, I figure that's probably enough for today. I'm going to get to work on cleaning up the front page of my website. Not looking at a complete overhaul like I did last year, just a bit of cleaning up and CSS work so that when I get around to a complete revamp, it'll be a bit easier for me.

Alright, so my last post I put forth a wish list on upgrades.  My research has forced me to alter it, a lot, and not necessarily in a good way.  My previous wish list read as follows:

 2 GB DDR RAM

GForce 8800

250 GB SATA Hard Drive 

Windows Vista.

 

 Unfortunately for me, some beginning research has indicated that some of those components require others, and that those other components, a really expensive.  Here's the line, with Tiger Direct linkage.

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition NVIDIA Socket AM2 ATX Motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.40GHz OEM Processor
OCZ Dual Channel XTC 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Gamer Memory (2 x 1024MB)
PNY GeForce 8800 GTS / 320MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / DL Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
Sceptre X9g-NagaV / 19" / 8ms / 800:1 / SXGA 1280 x 1024 / DVI-VGA / Black / LCD Monitor
Windows Vista Business - Complete
Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / Serial ATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive

 Other than the hard drive, all the other items are on the "need" portion of the list.  I'm looking at getting two orders of the RAM, which would stick me at 4 GB RAM instead of 3 GB.  The cost is not particularly fun, around $2000.  Needless to say, that's not really in my pocketbook right now.

Theoretically, as a teacher I will get a partial discount on computer equipment.  Theory and practice may be some distance from one another, so I'll have to wait and find out what kind of benefits I may get.  I have a suspicion that the discounts will only apply to a new, complete machine.

 By the time that I manage to get that information, and that kind of money, I'll have to go back through the hardware lists and re-select what I will obtain.  It may not be all that different, or it may be so large a difference that I'll be looking at quad-core technology.  Maybe the new DirectX 10 Radeon cards will make GeForce look silly and I'll switch my eyes back to them.  The only way to find out, is to wait and see.  There is no quick or partial upgrade coming with my taxes.  I'm looking at building a fresh machine.  For the new video card, I need a DVI monitor, so I may as well spend the extra bit of coin, and obtain a fresh case.  Transfer over my DVD-burner and I'll survive well enough, but I need the $2k+ in the first place.

 And this, my friends, is why I'm only an occasional gamer.  The daunting task of upgrading in order to keep up to snuff in order to handle the newest games is an incredible drain on funds.  Ah well, time to push it off again a little while longer...

Ok, so my fiancee tells me that I need to get a relaxing hobby. Something that has nothing to do with work, or writing, or anything like that. Considering how that's basically all I do, I tend to agree with her. On that note, I've been stepping up my gaming slightly. I'm still a PC gamer, and will continue to be one, so don't go thinking that I'm going to pick up your favourite console game. It isn't happening. My hands are made for a keyboard, not a game pad. I've managed to obtain Sim City 4 once again, and have tried that out. It's ok for a little while, but I don't think it'll last me. WoW and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 also aren't my cup of tea. I've begun adding some new games to my wish list. Helgate: London, Halo 2 (PC), Shadowrun, Spore, Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade... These all look like some pretty wicked games that I would love to enjoy on my machine. The catch? I'll be lucky to meet the minimums on most of these games. Here are my PC's specs: Computer Name: Infernus Morte Construction Date: September 17th, 2005 Constructed By: Me OS: Windows XP Professional Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ RAM: 1 GB DDR-RAM Video Card: 256 MB Radeon X700 Pro Sound: Logitech Z640 Surround Sound Speakers USB Ports: 8 (2 in front) Firewire Ports: 3 Main Hard Drive: 250 GB Secondary Hard Drive: 30 GB Sony DVD-RW LG CD-RW 5-Button Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard 5-in-1 media card reader USB Headset + Microphone Here are my laptop's specs. Computer Name: Daedelus Construction Date: Unknown, 2006 Constructed by: Toshiba (Model: Satellite A100) OS: Windows XP Professional Processor: Intel Centrino 1.8 GHz RAM: 1 GB DDR-RAM Video Card: Built-in Sound: Built-in Laptop Speakers USB Ports: 4 (2 on side) Firewire Ports: 1 mini-firewire Main Hard Drive: 25 GB Built-in DVD-RAM/RW SD-Card Reader For good measure, I have these peripherals. Peripherals: HP Deskjet 710C (Ink Jet Printer) HP Laserjet 1020 (Laser Printer) HP Scanjet 4370 Photo Scanner D-Link DI-604 Router (North Bay) D-Link DWL-2100AP Wireless Router (Timmins) So the laptop's a piece of crap, but that's not that big a deal considering what I use it for. My main rig though, it's a pretty decent machine. But if I plan to play the games I want to play on it, I'm going to have to start looking at a few upgrades. I'm looking at definitely upgrading the video card. That's the first part I'm going to want. It'll have to be something DirectX 10 compatible. This time I'm definitely going to be looking at the Gforce line of cards. ATI has truly gone down the tube, and no matter how much I may have liked the brand in the past, it just isn't doing it for me anymore. Next, I want to at least double, if not triple my RAM. I still have 2 empty RAM slots, so I can do this with only a pair of chips. After that, I want to scrap the old clunky CD-Burner that isn't working properly anymore, and add in a third hard drive. Another 250 GB should do me well enough. And finally, I need to upgrade to Windows Vista, either the Business or Ultimate editions. I've been cruising through a copy of Maximum PC, a special one dedicated to Vista, and I know I'm going to have to get it pretty soon if I want to start up on the PC gaming market. I already ran the test, and surprisingly, even my old Deskjet is still compatible. They recommend Business Edition, and looking at the features, I tend to agree. So when am I going to have the coin for these upgrades? Not until sometime in the fall. I'm hoping that I'll get a sweet score from my income tax, and will be able to pick up either the video card or the RAM in April/May, but since I'll be trying to move at that time, I should probably save my coin for that. Starting in the fall, I should, theoretically, be teaching. That has some nice fat paychecks, so I'll be able to get some of the upgrades I need. The most expensive upgrade, Windows Vista, I plan to wait a little longer for, unless the first service pack is already out by that time. Once I have Infernus Morte upgraded, I'll be able to play the games that require Vista and DirectX 10 in order to function properly (Hellsing:London and Shadowrun). -- In review news, all three of my reviews have been doing quite well. My Eve Online review has 1 recommendation. My World of Warcraft review is up to 6 recommendations. And my Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines review has 2 recommendations. I guess this means that people are generally finding my reviews useful. I suppose I should probably get to writing another one, and fully intend to right after I finish up a couple more assignments. My tagger emblem has been upgraded from Flirt to Dabbler, and I recently received the Regular Gumshoe emblem for helping to beta the Scavanator. I'm still working toward the Biohazard emblem. Hopefully it'll show up in a few days. Over the past 10 days, I've posted a series of Daily Challenges over in the Writers' Lounge. It's managed a few posts, but not too many. I guess they aren't too interested in that sort of stuff. Oh well, won't stop me from trying. Well, that's it for this monster entry. Another one coming soon! -- Edit: Alright, so I've begun the research on this stuff. It turns out that in order for me to have a DirectX 10 compatible video card, I'm looking at a GForce 8 series graphics card. At the moment, those are only available for PCIE slots, and not AGP. Unfortunately, my motherboard is a K8T Neo2-F, which has an AGP slot. So I'm looking at having to get a new motherboard and a new chip. That's fine, except it also means new RAM since my current RAM is just DDR, and the new motherboards are all DDR2. Additionally, since most CPUs are dual-core, I'm looking at probably having to pick up a new power supply on top of it all. So, to tie everything down here, I'm basically looking at a whole new computer (except for the minor pieces). Lovely.

So I just watched my first episode of GSpot Live. Now, a lot of it really didn't apply to me, or to my kind of gaming. There were a few things that I found kinda cool or interesting. First, the Folding@Home project. Now, they talked about how they were going to allow people to DL this and put it on their PS2s. Fantastic idea. It's not particularly new though. The whole @Home series of scientific research has been going on for ages, and on my PC, I've been working for Einstein@Home, Seti@Home, Rosetta@Home, and QMC@Home for a couple of years now. With Folding@Home, you're looking at processing Protein combinations in a search for a cure for various ailments like Alzheimers. Funny thing is, that's exactly the same as Rosetta@Home, only it's being run through Stanford instead of Washington University. Currently, my 2 computers each spend 30% of my off-time processing for Rosetta. Einstein@Home is an attempt to find data on Pulsars. I currently spend only 10% of my computers' off-time processing this stuff. Seti@Home, which garners 20% of my off-time, is of course the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. QMC@Home, to which I dedicate the bulk of my processor's time at 40%, attempts to refine and better the Quantum Monte Carlo method for general use in Quantum Chemistry (thus enabling us to find lighter, stronger, cheaper, and more durable materials from which to create stuff). I find it really interesting that they've decided to transfer some of this processing capabilities to the Playstation, as it could potentially be of great aid in making some of the required discoveries of our time. However, with that many more consoles continuously powered on, I'm concerned about the power consumption, and the potential environmental impact that this program may have. Global Warming and the like are in the news like mad right now, but of course made no mention on GSpot. Let's face it, we're here to talk about and play games, not protect the environment. However, I like to think of myself as an environmentally conscious individual. I recycle everything that I can, have as few things powered on at all times as I can manage (aside from my computers which are doing important scientific research), and take part in numerous environmental activities every day... There is no knowing what kind of an impact this will have on the environment without some statistics to the amount of power a PS2 consumes in an hour, the number of PS2s that would be left on to run this program, and the amount of pollution produced by the average power plant per hour in order to generate that amount of electricity (stats which we'll never see). The other part that I really liked was the God Of War 2 action. Those scenes were pretty wicked. I'll never play the game, but it still looked sweet. At the end, they announced a chance for a new emblem, the Scavenator Beta. Basically, play the beta and post some constructive criticism. The emblem is available for 1 day only, so I was kinda glad I decided to tune in to this episode. The parts I didn't give a damn about, were all the football and baseball garbage. Sports really don't interest me, not even hockey. But hey, I guess they needed something to fill their time... Of course, that's why they showed some Japanese stuff that will never come to North America right? -- In other news, I've stopped playing Oblivion. The game was just dragging too much from my system, and every time I tried to reload after death, the game would crash. Going to have to figure out which mod was causing that, but instead, since it's been so long since I was interested in it, I just pushed it aside. Managed to get Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 the other day. I think I preferred its predecessor more. RCT3 seems to be pretty clunky with the cameras, often causing wrong parts to be deleted, and costing me coin. The rides seem to be, more or less, the exact same as what was available in RCT2, except now they're more expensive. Additionally, the whole colouring of the game is a bit annoying. Despite this, I still managed to waste a good chunk of today on it when I should have been working on my projects for university, so it does still have the addition, lose track of time thing that all RCT games have. I think that's about it for now, other than just mentioning that I think I have all the stills that I'll need for when I start doing my v-blogging. Rin's Report shouldn't be too hard for me to put together once I manage level 10.

Right, so I've picked World of Warcraft back up again. I keep starting this game, but I never quite get anywhere before I lose interest or run out of time, and have to let it sit for a few months while I save up or get my work out of the way. I think I've figured out what it is that frustrates me the most about this game.

Now, I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means. Although I've played a fair share of MMORPGs (The Realm, Ultima Online, Ragnorok Online, Guild Wars, FFXI, WoW, Eve Online, and one or two more I can't remember), I've never stuck with many of them for very long. They've all had their good sides and their bad sides. They've all had some things that I found were implemented well, and some that just seemed lacking. With WoW, despite having purchased the game when it first came out, I've basically been capped by level 30. By the time I finally get through my 20s, I'm so horribly bored of the game, and it's constant run and fetch quests that keep sending you back to the same place over and over again, that I can't find any way to rationalize blowing another chunk of cash to continue my subscription yet another month.

I know it's actually not that hard, and doesn't really take that long to get those levels. But that's for a hardcore gamer, or even an average gamer. As an occasional gamer, it can take me a long time to get those levels. I'm a beginning teacher, still obtaining my B.Ed. at university, so there's a lot of planning, marking, and assignments that I need to worry about. Add to the top of that my 20 hr/wk part-time job, and I don't really have all that much time to play video games. To make things more difficult for levelling, I only play MMORPGs with my fiancee as one of those things that we do together. So with the limited number of hours a week that I can set aside for gaming, it takes quite a while to get those levels, and that subscription quickly expires.

Now, once upon a time we used to play Ragnarok Online. Not a particularly good game overall. It was "cute" with it's anime-like interface and characters. It was also cheap. And, most importantly for an occasional gamer, you could purchase 30 hrs that could be used any time within a 6 month span. Now that, my friends, is a brilliant idea. I may get 3 hours a week to play video games. Assuming I were to spend all those hours playing a MMORPG, that'd be 10 weeks of play, which 2 weeks over 2 months. Now, I could easily rationalize paying out the coin for something that I could stretch over 6 months, whenever I happen to have time. I'd have no problem with that. But shuffling out a horde of cash for a monthly subscription, of which I'm going to get 12 hours of play, it's pretty frustrating and really not worth the coin.

I like the game, but it's frustrating as a poor, occasional gamer. I'm currently running on Maelstrom, as a Troll named Hlatshwayo. It's an RPPVP server, because as an avid PNP RP gamer, I figure the online version wouldn't be too bad. Too bad most players haven't a clue what the acronym RP means...

Oh well. Enough game talk for now. I gotta get back to marking...