Queen of Roses

I’ve been playing Blazblue recently, and, of all the characters, I enjoy watching Rachel=Aludard the most.  All of the characters are original (even in their stereotypicality) and dripping with personality.  But Rachel entertains me the most: Granted, watching any of these characters in the hands of a skilled player is akin to watching choreographed dancing: [...]

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Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions

Eve is one of those games whose concept I adore a great deal more than actually playing.  Usually, other vectors in my life deflect my desire to play Eve Online.  Still, it probably best encapsulates what I think of as a true virtual world game: Also, Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions is a phrase with [...]

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A brief note on the whole EA Dante’s Inferno marketing absurdity

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you got here through other blogs.  That likely means that you pay attention to what goes on in the world that seems most directly connected to my blog: video games.  And that implies you’ve heard about EA’s Dante’s Inferno Sin To Win contest at Comiccon. In general, I [...]

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Empire: Total War (My Life as a King)

I’ve been playing Empire: Total War recently.  It’s a very solid entry in the Total War line, though it piles on even more complexity; this may scare off newcomers.  Given that I enjoy complexity (and numbers, which it has in spades), I enjoy this game.  It also happens to have an endearing battle model, enjoyable [...]

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Final Fantasy IV at OCRemix

The remixers at OCRemix have put together a (really, really) lengthy collection of remixes from Final Fantasy IV.  I recommend checking it out.

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Quick Tangent on the Warrior Q&A

The Warrior Q&A saw Ghostcrawler demonstrating his consistent lack of a coherent vision for the future of WoW gameplay, thinking instead in an ad-hoc manner about specific problems.  There’s the possibility that his thoughts are crystallizing into a broader realization that perhaps they have gone TOO FAR in insuring the efficacy of each class in [...]

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A note on Balance Sheets and Flows

Perhaps you’ve heard that the savings rate in the US has increased.  It’s interesting to examine this: savings is measured as the difference between income and expenditure.  That is, it’s a measure of the change in net worth of the population, not necessarily an increase in what laypeople understand as “savings”.  Saving in that measure [...]

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GC continues to speak sense

Ghostcrawler popped into a discussion on (bad) talent trees to make the following statement: We have put a lot of passive increases in for a few reasons, including: 1) It’s the main way for hybrids to distinguish themselves (otherwise Elemental heals as well as Resto). 2) They are popular in a wide variety of situations [...]

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Speechless

I know many of my few readers pass by Lum’s soapbox regularly, so you’ve probably already read this.  This guy reminds me of the motivational speaker played by Patrick Swayze.  He doesn’t say things that actually have meaning, he says things that sound like they have meaning.  By twisting those around in a manner too [...]

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Druid Class Q&A

From the Druid Q&A: Ghostcrawler indicates that he has a vague understanding of where Druid fun is.  If this is indicative of the evolution of his thought on where all classes should go, I am happy: In addition to having to give up utility in order to heal as a Tree of Life, we have [...]

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