The least of your problems...

Just diverting from the UAE latest...

I read this article just now.

Let me paraphrase... complaints are being made on why a warning label on swearing wasnt included on the box of a computer game.

If this was Bambi Chases Butterflies, then yes if Bambi drops the F-Bomb well you'd be upset.

But no, this game is a MA 15+ Violence riddled game called "House of the Dead: Overkill" and you can see what a wholesome game it is from the screenshots.

Seriously, if you let your kids play this and THEN complain about the swearing, you're an idiot!

Too Sexy For World of Warcraft

I have never played World of Warcraft - mainly because I would become an addicted zombie - but every now and then I get see these videos and think they're funny and very clever.

Here's one I saw today:



As a post-script... this is WHY I don't play such games

Long Weekend Wasn't So Long

Tuesday morning… feels like Monday… didn’t feel like I had a long weekend as it went in a blink of an eye!

Saturday was a run around day… I bought new clothes at Penrith Plaza in between taking Kate to and from dancing and basically and as I type this I cant recall exactly what I did on Saturday afternoon… Saturday night, we had all of Niki’s family over for a catch up after the Malaysian trip and we bought a stack of pizza’s (which I ordered online for the first time – kinda weird experience!) and I went to bed reasonably early that night.

Sunday was Tommy’s 40^th birthday celebrations and that was an all day (and night) gaming marathon at his place… 10:30am through to me getting home at 2:15am Sunday.  Yes, Nerd City, but it was a great day.  Games played (from memory):  Fire & Axe, RoboRally, Betrayal in the House on Hill, Last Night on Earth (twice – cool Zombie killing game), Micro Mutants, Las Vegas Showdown, Cash & Guns… I think that covered it… Tommy’s wife cooked a great meal of lamb shanks and we had a celebratory cake and basically never left the dining table all day.

So yesterday, I slept in until 10ish and we went to Mum & Dad’s for lunch (more Malaysian tales told) and then to Glenn & Brooke’s for dinner… but we were home at 8ish so that was good being a school night and all.

So my weekend was, drinking coke, rolling dice, driving, drinking more coke, and eating and sleeping at odd times… not too unusual when you put it that way!

Oh and happy birthday Queenie… hope you got some nice socks or something!

World of Warcraft Addiction

This article is me... I am a gamer, grew up with games, am into fantasy genre games, books etc and am probably a bit obsessive compulsive with my gaming.

I have never played WoW and I doubt that I ever will. Why? Because I know I would get sucked in. I play a variety of games at any one time both online and on table top, but I am not a real big computer gamer. I have a PSP yes and I have played some PC games, but that whole me vs an AI model that lacks real tactical nous generally kills off my PC gaming interests. i.e. when I realise a game is "easy" or it is difficult and I master it, I turn off.

But table top gaming and web based gaming versus real people is my thing. Graphically they aren't the best. Some games I play via email. But what makes me obsessive is playing against Human Intelligence not AI. I lose. Alot. But that's what makes it a good mental challenge.

Now WoW falls into both camps. It has the graphical interface that makes PC gaming attractive. It is a very aesthetically enjoyable game. It is also about people vs people. People join Guilds, become friends and adventure together. "Never let the Guild (team) down" is the motto, and I would be a sucker for that.

If I was to play WoW, I am sure I would become addicted and end up as one of the stereotypical zombified PC gazers and the rest of my life would be secondary priority. Scary stuff and a thing that I have seen happen to others.

Any WoW addicts out there?

Weekend Leviathan Wrap

Spent a wet weekend playing at the Leviathan tournament at Quakers Hill in which I did rather poorly :-)

Came 9th out of 16 with 2 wins, a draw and 3 losses... if I had my time again, I would have made some changes to my roster as my choices had severly limited my skills. Essentially, taking 4 Chaos Warriors was an overkill and hence my other 7 players were quite crap as a result... oh well, live and learn!

But my weekend was good and I had a great time and my team won Best Painting which was good for Dan who painted them.

Also, my mate Noyz who hasnt played Blood Bowl in 15 years had his first crack and he came from near bottom on Saturday to 7th overall by the end with a 3-0-3 record.

But as far as weekend's go, it was a good nerdy weekend!

Founding Father of Gaming Passes Away

I was going to write another inane post on my trip to Melbourne, anti-terrorism measures and the virtues of Qantas, but instead I have just been knocked for six to learn that the founder of gaming Gary Gygax has passed away.

For us gamers, Gary was the legend who invented Dungeons & Dragons and was a huge influence on many genre's of gaming from table top military gaming through to the RPG scene.

He passed away at his home at Lake Geneva Wisconsin.

RIP Dungeon Master

Post script: Some tributes here and here

And a further one here which is very similar to my story...

SimCity Online?

Bumped into MyMiniCity.com today... I used to play SimCity alot as a kid... perhaps this may be an online version? I am yet to register and actually play, but it looks pretty neat.

Wet Weekend Wrap

Wet Weekends! According to the weather men, we had better get used to them.

Cricket was washed out despite the sunshine peeking out on Saturday afternoon, the ground was awash with water…

So instead, we played board games most of the weekend. I had bought Settlers of Catan when I went to Canberra a few weeks ago and I thought it would be good game to play with the girls. If you haven’t played it, it’s a board game in which you collect cards to trade in to build roads and settlements on the island of Catan. First to 10 points wins… game play is supposed to be 60mins. But 2 and a half hours later after 3 sittings, Kate eventually won and was very happy. Having said that though, everyone enjoyed it – even Niki who tends to shy away from my Tolkien-esque genre of games. So that gets added to the “play when the sky is pissing on us” list.

Sunday was Niki’s mums 75^th birthday and we had nice weather to go to the Norman Lindsay Gallery café for lunch. It was very wet on the ground though so we had to dodge the puddles to get to the restaurant but it was a good lunch with a couple of bottles of wine. It was good for Beryl to be out and about after her layoff recently (for the record, Beryl left our place on Friday after about 2 weeks).

Then it was to be home to watch the cricket, but my mate Tommy rang who had a comedy gig at Springwood for both a lunch and a dinner session and had 3 hours to kill. So he came over and we played “Return of the Heroes” with the girls as well. That too went for about 2 hours but the girls did really well and were very much into it with Kate playing the lady spell slinger and Brookie taking the role of a lady Dwarf (no beard!). Tommy and I did comparatively shit house and the girls managed each to battle through their quests and then take on the “big baddie” at the end – a Demon. Unfortunately both the girls were killed with Kate going down first and then Brooke but they had good fun. With time running out and with both Tommy and I a million miles away from getting to the bad dude, we called it quits… the girls were very happy that they did so well so it was a good fun afternoon of rolling dice.

Dungeons & Dragons - 4th Edition Released

My favourite game, Dungeons & Dragons has just re-released its core rules to move into 4th Edition.

This of course after I just outlayed $80 for the 3.5 edition (a major update to the 3rd Ed books) about 2 months ago.

Early views are that the game can now be played online by subscription utilising special applications via the Net but also the rules have been really shifted.

My perusing of the various D&D messageboards is that people are annoyed / worried about the rule changes and the focus on technology, and others are really excited... I think that there are more people in the former category than the latter.

If you're a D&D player, what are your thoughts? I am a bit bemused at the moment...

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page

Gaming - Is it about Luck or Fun?

Indulge me if you will in a bit of a gaming post...

One of my fellow blood bowlers (a Games Workshop game) lost it big time this week with his string of (bad) luck and quit our league mid-season and has advertised on numerous Blood Bowl / Gaming websites that he is selling his largish collection of miniatures and bits and pieces.

In response to this, Tommy "ozjesting" Dean has perhaps drafted one of the best posts / rants about people who whinge about luck and yet play games involving dice.  Dice are, completely random and be it a game on a table with real dice or a computer version of a game with a programmed Random Number Generator (RNG), then you will - and you WILL - have good luck and you will have bad luck.  The point of Oz's post however is that no matter how much strategy you put in, no matter how "good" a player you think you are, a bad dice roll at a crucial time will cruel your best laid plans.

Read this manifesto here.

I do post this posting today because the player who has retired from Blood Bowl is a regular reader of this blog, and I do hope he sees this and realises that he should simply enjoy the game and play it for the camaraderie and not get caught up with the winning / losing aspect.  I know that there are issues in real life mate, but if you can't get some time out with a what boils down to it is a silly game and simply enjoy it for what it is, then you do need to rethink why you do play games of any sort.

I know todays post isnt about World Politics or even my own navel gazing at my own hectic life, but I thought Tommy's post was too good to keep hidden in the fumbbl SWL forum.

AusBowl Returns!

Back in 2005, I plugged a site for Australian Bloodbowl players... Now AusBowl Mark II has been launched with a new look and feel... so for any Blood Bowl players / fans / enthusiasts out there, sign up today and make it a living community!

Games Workshop Failing...

Well!  Games Workshop, the people who stuffed up thousands of gamers when they released games and stop supporting them (Blood Bowl, Necromunda et al) to milk the cash cow that is (was) Warhammer seems to have hit hard times according to this article.

BoardGameGeek has this thread running on the subject and there aren't many tears for GW... and I am not crying either!

Put it simply, Warhammer is overpriced rubbish and the better games with better rule sets and better cost to the consumer have died as an officially supported game and we now live on eBay and second hand copies and rule updates published by enthusiasts....

/rant off :)

Hell is Freezing Over - Aircon is working...

They finally have the new aircon system online… they turned it on this morning and just now, I can start feeling cool air at my desk.  You cannot believe how much of an impact small things like aircon can impact the enthusiasm for work.  Yesterday we had no aircon and we had no toilets on our floor for some reason (the bathroom was full of workmen with copper pipes and arc welding equipment).  So yesterday not only was it hot, I had to take a lift to another floor to take a piss… brilliant!

All seems well today, but given this building I am in is 40 years old or so, it wont be long before something else breaks….

I mentioned yesterday as well that I wanted to do something else… well I have thought about it and have done some research and whilst I am about a hundred years of chucking in my job, I have been giving some thought to doing some creative writing and trying to get some d20 game material (Dungeons & Dragons) published.

I have been playing D&D for 20 years and I have had my fair share of ideas spin around my head so I am going to as a hobby try and get some of it published… several companies in the RPG area are advertising for submissions and I may have a crack at it.

You never know, I may just be good at it or it may be a little hobby sideline that seems me earn a few bob on the side…. At the moment it's not a career thing, but a "lets see where this goes" kind of thing.

How the time flies...

Just realised I forgot to do a post today... been flat chat...

But not all work... I won't get into work issues, but I have been busy on the gaming front too...

On Tuesday night, played my Round 7 game of the Spike Cup - a western Sydney Blood Bowl League - and won that game 4-1.  I am now running second with a 5-0-2 record and face the unbeaten (assuming they win Rnd 7 as well) Dwarves (how ironic) in Round 8.  Using the new LRB5 rules, the comp has been excellent!

Also, have been getting ready for Eucalyptus Bowl in July... am playing the Death Roller and the team is all ready to go... I also finished painting my Pro-Elves and am now back to the Skaven... when they are done, the next project is a Rotters team for CanCon 2008... busy on the painting front!

Still on Blood Bowl, my mate Noyz has bought himself a game board and a team and we'll start getting him back into the game... he hasnt played in about 10-15yrs, so it will be interesting to see if he's still as keen as he was.

On other things, its Mothers Day weekend... so it will be a busy weekend seeing our Mum's and then also giving Niki a good day on Sunday... I have a present, but its a secret ;-)  ssssh!

Podcasting - am loving it... my evening routine now involves downloading the podcasts i have subscribed to and I must admit I was pissing myself (embarrassingly so) on the train this morning listening to Tony Martin... very funny.

OK... sorry for the lame evening post... something tomorrow :)

Diplomacy - New Game Started

Call me a sadist, but I have commenced a new game of Diplomacy against via Play by eMail format... Unfortunately I drew Turkey... a country that starts the game in the corner and basically has to fight like buggery to get out.  Traditionally, the view is that Turkey should be eliminated ASAP to ensure Austrian and / or Russian domination... I in turn need to talk fast to stop that from happening.

You can follow the game via the Diplomacy 2000 site and track my demise ;-)

Diplomacy - End Game Statements

Played my first game of Diplomacy by email with complete strangers and did pretty ordinary at the end (survived with just one unit left on the board).

The good thing about Diplomacy is that at the end, everyone writes an "end game statement" in which we truthfully reveal our reasons for playing and moving what we did.

You can see that my statement (as Russia) differs from Austria's... unfortunately Turkey didnt respond...

Diplomacy 2000 Adjudication

Deathroller Complete

Finished painting my Dwarven Deathroller today... all ready to go in July's Eucalyptus Bowl.

I know I'm not the best painter around, but I'm happy with this effort. I have gone for a matching burgundy scheme as to my Dwarf team (the Glenbrook Kings) and hence the hand painted crown logo on the side.

Also, I have gone for the mad, googly eyed look... most deathrollers I see painted cover the lens in black paint to look like sunglasses... I instead went for a big thick lenses :)

The End of Dragon Magazine

Sadly, one of the institutions of gaming, Dragon Magazine, is closing down and the owners of the magazine rights, Wizards of the Coast are not renewing the publishing contract.

To many people, this isn't a big deal, but for gamers Dragon Magazine and its sister magazine Dungeon were a great source of gaming info, particularly for Dungeons & Dragons. The press release states that the magazine can no longer keep up with web publishing and hence are offering a web subscription service instead.

The death of paper? Sad, but will it be the end of pen and paper role playing games like D&D?

Press Release From Paizo Publishing

Quick CanCon Wrap

Got back last night from CanCon, the big gaming convention in Canberra where I once again had a tilt at the Australian Blood Bowl Nationals.  In terms of results on the pitch, I did slightly worse than last year finishing equal 5^th (out of 30) as opposed to last years 3^rd, but I think I enjoyed the games this year more and on top of that, I was able to play a few boardgames at night given I was on my own and the comp was probably a lot tighter over all.

Firstly, I think a big Lime Kettles congratulations must go to Tommy “ozjesting” Dean, a regular Lime Kettle poster who took out the title in a very exciting grand final.  His Norse team was clearly the best team overall and was the deserved champ with a 5-2-0 record.  Also, one of the best victory speeches I have ever heard… am yet to know whether he was able to successfully collect his prize of the woman of his choice….??

On my efforts, I played Tommy and I also played the runner up (Ian “Doubleskulls” Williams) and two very close matches with both those guys that could have gone either way.  Ultimately Tommy beat me and I drew with Ian and I guess that’s what cost me the title…

My matches went something like this:

• Vs Rod Noye (Orcs) 2-0 win
• Vs Doubleskulls (Amazons) 1-1 draw
• Vs Vimes (Skaven) 1-1 draw
• Vs Brad Delmege(sp?) (Dark Elves) 1-1 draw (yes another farking 1-1 draw)
• Vs Ozjesting (Norse) 0-1 loss
• Vs GardenGnome (Pro Elves) 2-3 loss
• Vs Drakeular (Necromantic) 3-1 win

So overall, a 2/3/2 record and I also took out the most casualties’ award (25 in 7 games) and the best painted single miniature award and my prize was a new Dwarven Deathroller miniature, which I am very very happy about.

Had a good look around CanCon as well and if I had the cash, I could have gone berserk.  I did get a Carcassonne expansion for the girls (Princess & Dragon) but that was about it.

The next Blood Bowl tournament is Leviathan at Quakers Hill in mid April, so I hope to see you all there!

CanCon - last minute post

Well a late post today from my desk… drove in this morning in the rain as I am driving to Canberra after work today for CanCon 2007.

All my boot is laden with Blood Bowl stuff plus I am taking some D&D books, a board game – Betrayal on the House on the Hill – and my PSP… I am set for a weekend of Gaming of all sorts – Nerd City here I come!

My custom made Blood Bowl pitch didn’t fit in the boot this morning, so its taking up the back seat but it fits there nice and snugly.  Forgot to pack my camera this morning as well, so there wont be any CanCon shots this year for the blog…. D’oh.

For those readers who are going as well, I look forward to seeing you soon!

Go the Dwarves!