Blog Posts from "HEH GOD DAMNIT"

Ordered my new Laptop.

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:57:28 -0400

So, after careful deliberation, I ordered a gaming laptop instead of going with a desktop and an ultraportable laptop.

The main reason for that decision was that I will have to move around quite a bit in the next year or two and I am hoping that this laptop will provide me with the juice I need in that time.

Once I am settled in, I will most likely replace it with a high powered desktop.

Anyway, here is the laptop I ordered and I have to say I am surprised at how much you can get for 2200 USD.

Sager NP5790 from www.sagernotebooks.com

- Display: 17" WSXGA+ LCD with Matte Finish Surface (1680X1050)
    - Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7300 / 4MB L2 Cache, 2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB[+$50.00]
    - Video & Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT Graphics with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory
    - Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® VISTA Home Premium 32/64 Bit Edition
    - Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 X 512MB
    - Primary Hard Disk Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA 150 Hard Drive[+$75.00]
    - Optical Drive: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
    - Wireless Network Card: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
    - Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth Module
    - Primary Battery: Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
    - Integrated Security Device: Fingerprint Reader
    - Warranty: Sager One Year Standard Warranty
    - Carrying Bag: Standard Carrying Bag

this was priced at a moderate 1924 usd, to which I added 199 usd of 4GB of Corsair ram.

It's not 100% top of the line, but I think it will provide for a pretty good amount of frames per second in whatever game I decide to play. Mind you I am not into Crysis, FEAR or whatever. Basically just WoW and Warhammer.

PvP - Barrier of Entry already too high.

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 03:19:54 -0400

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am most likely going to reroll on Tichondrius US in order to be more active in the BG9 PvP scene. However, since I have made that decision, I realised that without having a high rated team to buy rating off, you are faced with a huge burden when wanting to reroll. My paladin that has good gear is on a trashbag Euroserver unfortunately and so I'd have no other option than to start from scratch.

This problem is foreseeably alleviated by yet another expansion, yet another 10 levels to go through and even more gear to accrue.

Leveling is one barrier of entry, but collecting gear is another. It would take months to get the gear needed to compete at a relatively high level and it is discouraging me from buying another account and starting to level it again.

For this reason, I believe the best way to solve this issue is to release a WoW Tournament edition without the trouble of leveling new characters. I know that Blizzard has said it won't happen, but I still believe an increased focus needs to be put on it. Especially with more tournaments surfacing in the coming year.

World of Warcraft vs Warhammer Beta

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:15:26 -0400

For the last few days I have been watching Warhammer PvP videos from the beta and whereas I know that it's way too soon to say anything about the quality of the game (remember WoW closed beta?) it is obvious that there will be some fundamental differencies between the two games.

Where WoW has almost fps style pace and lots of instant spells, doesn't have character collision and is generally speaking a game of quick reactions. The feel I get from the Warhammer videos is that it is much slower, with more focus on positioning, protection of your casters and so forth.

I prefer the latter style, but I don't think Warhammer will appeal to the people who came to WoW from fps. So despite getting massive interest in the beta (almost 400000 people applied), it's hard to tell if Warhammer will keep WoW players interested.

Personally I am swaying towards saying that it won't.

HEH coming to a town near you.

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:05:31 -0400

That's right. If you're playing on Tich, I will be coming to a town near you.

Haven't decided which class to roll this time around or even which faction.

Old school Archimonde repruhzent!

Blogging for the sake of blogging.

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:44:46 -0400

I would like to think it's not what i'm actively doing right now, but that I have a delicate point hidden somewhere in this drivel.

I mean, it seems to me like a lot of people on Gameriot have absolutely nothing worthwhile saying and yet they keep publishing blogs as if people will actually care about what they read. I know that Xi has touched upon the subject of rogues pasting **** from EJ forums and blogging about things that are essentially useless, but they are not the only ones.

Is it because you've seen how Ming and other popular bloggers draw tons of people to their sites and want to become the next big fad in the WoW Esports community?

If that is the case, let me assure you that posting for the sake of posting is not the way to go about it. Ming may be completely off his tits mad, but at least he fills out the role of Internet Antagonist well.

What is needed?

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:53:34 -0400

World of Warcraft as en Esport is in its infancy. Of that there is no doubt. And with every infant there are difficulties, of which World of Warcraft has sure seen its share.
We've seen rule changes mid season, we've seen mass disqualifications of some of the best players in World of Warcraft. Even at Blizzcon there were numerous technical issues as well as poor commentary.

Regardless of these problems we have newly crowned winners of 2v2 and 5v5 and World of Warcraft now has a professional competitive element to it.
So what is needed to retain this element and what are the current problems that need immediate fixes?

From my perspective there are a few issues that need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Number 1:
Rules need to be laid out and not changed. It is not fair to players or their sponsors to have rules changed mid season resulting in a skewed competition later on.

Number 2: Player Lore. It is, in my opinion, essential that a strong community is built around key players, managers, sponsors and so forth in order for the general community to have something to talk about. The community is essentially what makes the Esport and if there is nothing to talk about the community will withdraw its interest in the game and move on to something more interesting. A character like MoB's Godfather has been receiving a lot of criticism for his public image. People dislike his cheap looking sunglasses and overall enthusiasm for the game. But much like Ming, another community antihero, Godfather is a proponent for the old adage "Bad publicity is better than no publicity" and by putting on a public display (like it or not) he gives people something to ***** and moan about, which is in my opinion a good thing for the community as a whole.

Number 3:
Commentary. The commentary in the World of Warcraft tournaments (both WSVG and Blizzcon) has been atrocious. Nothing short of atrocious (my sincere apologies to the few people along the way who have been tolerable). It is a slap in the face to the people who play World of Warcraft to have to listen to people who beyond being fairly inarticulate also don't seem to have a concept of the game from a PvP perspective.

But this isn't the worst aspect of the poor commentary. People who aren't playing PvP, who could be interested in seeing matches of this magnitude are simply put off by it, because hearing "HE IS REALLY BEING HIT HARD" doesn't really say anything about the finer points of PvP and also doesn't make it easier to follow a game that is visually more disruptive than even a fast paced game of Starcraft.

Number 4:
Game balance. Having 750 warlock teams in the 2v2 bracket does nothing to help the image of the game.
Furthermore the addition of higher level caps and even more gear to be obtained from doing high level end game content introduces an entry barrier for new people wanting to indulge in the PvP aspect of the game.

Number 5:
Number of tournaments. The current number of tournaments in the different brackets beyond maybe 3v3 is not high enough to mandate a professional involvement from sponsors on a large scale and further more it also has a detrimental impact on creating Player Lore as described in point number 2.

All in all, I think World of Warcraft is off to a good start; I think there has been good points as well, but I think it is imperative that Blizzcon will be treated as a start off point rather than a season 1 finale. This was the pilot, it's time to push the whole thing into large scale production and make sure the community expands and embraces it.

Xi has a point: Airtime can be bought by Tits.

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:51:09 -0400

Xi. I was never completely sold on your blog, but man do you bring out a 12 inch nail, a huge ******* fatmax flexpoint hammer and hit it up on point in this one.

I, personally, fear myself. I really do. Because some of the things going on in my head during the one episode of Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Cooking would make Brett Easton Ellis blush, I am pretty sure. The same is the case with these incompetents who have no doubt been brought up by a model mom, marrying a rich father, whose sole mission in life was to become a parastical beast, sucking the very last penny out of Daddy's bank account.

I hate when a pair of tits buys you more airtime than solid knowhow in your field of employment. Don't get me wrong, I hate feminism too and that is a point I need to make right now. Because feminist crusaders don't want equality, they want all the benefits and none of the downsides. Paternal custody anyone?

Anyway, I am getting off track here. So with the risk of sounding like a sexist prick (which I am not, of course) I think half the reason I am dismayed is because they're not even nice tits. Before you start: THEY CHOOSE TO ***** THEMSELVES OFF IN THE MEDIA WITH LARGE BREASTS SO THEY SHOULD BE TREATED AS A COMMODITY.

Glad I got that out of the way.

I don't have many more points to make here other than: Get a ******* clue Blizzard and hire decent staff to perform various functions at your venue.

If you disregard this, maybe next year Jay Mohr can do SC2 commentary? Just make sure to not do it live, so he can have cue-cards about every game before sitting down to talk about them.

Laptop or Desktop.

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:26:06 -0400

For the past two years, I have been playing games on a Dell XPS laptop. But because I am Bruce Banner turned Hulk, I completely and utterly destroyed the screen on it while trying to lazily carry the heavy laptop in the corner of the monitor. Result was a smudge of crystals looking like the art project of an autist with no hands.

So now I need a new machine to game with and I am thinking of how to do it.

On one hand I am tempted to buy another laptop, probably an XPS 1700 series, and have one machine for everything.

On the other hand I think I would like to split up functionality and get an ultraportable laptop (Dell XPS 1300 series perhaps? anyone have experience?) with a nicely sized keyboard) and then build a desktop PC for gaming.

By gaming, I mean sitting and reloading the Warhammer beta login website.

While we wait for Warhammer..

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:22:24 -0400

So, waiting for Warhammer?

Me too.

Seems like we're not the only ones either. Haven't seen this much hype about an MMO since World of Warcraft. Oh, yes, maybe with the exception of Darkfall. Beta next week, guys. Better grab a spot while you still can.

But back on track and back to Warhammer. More specifically Warhammer and the IRC channel #battlegroup9. Quick background on #battlegroup9: Early on recognised as being the most competetive battlegroup of the US cluster people are now flocking to this IRC channel to be part of the, at times, blazingly talented community, many of which enjoy corporate salaries from their game sponsors (ok, not quite but you get the idea).

So we have some good PvP'ers, most of which have experience and history from games like Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane etc and a then a bunch of people who grew up with World of Warcraft as their only MMO experience and point of reference. Somehow this melting pot of immaturity, blatant racism (by nerds who probably cross the street if they see a black person), pvp skill and competitiveness works out and the community is one of the best that I've seen in any game, but there seems to be a clear divide when it comes to Warhammer.

Basically, you can put people into two categories.

The "Warhammer is going to suck, you will be disappointed" crowd and

the "Warhammer is going to bring back PvP as it was intended to be and it will rule" crowd.

Now, I have to admit that I belong to the ex-World of Warcraft crowd, mostly because I didn't feel the game bring me the joy and relaxation you should get from a game. So I am eagerly awaiting Warhammer. I am awaiting it because I think online games are more fun when you primarily fight against other people. And I don't mean guild chat fighting over who gets the nether vortex.

But what do you think? Worth the wait? Overhyped?

Will #battlegroup9 rule Warhammer?

Will Kevz piss his pants again?

Will fistina ever like girls who dress up as animals?

Will there be an allstar basketball team consisting only of Black Orcs? (and will ming write about them?)

All this and more in your comments and my next entry.