Remembering River

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of River’s passing. For anyone that might like to share a memory or thought, or read the memories and thoughts of others I wanted to share a link to the Remembering River Facebook page.

Remember

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I make this post today.

Although I haven’t posted in a while, River and I have remained friends, mostly keeping updated through facebook. When I logged in yesterday I saw hundreds of posts from River’s friends and family being made to his facebook wall. As I read through them I was met with the news that River passed away yesterday.

The messages from his friends and family are so touching. It is apparent he was loved and appreciated by so many people. I know he impacted my life in a very positive way.

Although we never met in person, he was my friend from afar. He gave me advice, he stood up for me, and he always made me laugh. I know he sometimes struggled to find a balance in life, because he was so giving of himself. He was the first to help his parents and his friends in their times of need. He will be greatly missed.

I know he has had an impact on many of his readers. You may not have always agreed with him – but you were always laughing – and you were always reading. And I think that is what he wanted. To share his thoughts, to impact others – and through that communication to impact himself. I know he loved writing and keeping up with this blog. And I know I will love to be able to go back and read through it in the future and think of him.

For those that may be interested in leaving a note of condolence or sending flowers I located a page dedicated to his memory.

 

I’ll end with the final post River made to his personal blog, Chaotic Ramblings.

---

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann’d:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

---

 

Love you Riv.

Enter the Warlord

So I got invited into Alpha for Warlords of Draenor, and big thanks to my friend who shall remain nameless who hooked me up.

I didn’t get to play too much, but I delved into a little…let me give you some initial thoughts.

My battle.net app didn’t have a spot to download new client, so the forums directed me to another place ,and that worked. If you’re having problems the forums is a good place to check.

The login screen is a throwback of an earlier screen I think the original which had the dark portal before you. The music on login and character select is awesome. It sounds like a war song with it’s drums beating.

I tried the in game character copy stuff, but it didn’t work, I found out there’s a way to do a beta copy character through the account page. and that worked. I copied my Warlock, but when I tried to enter it said that race/class could not be played at the moment. Ok well I made a level 90 Orc Warlock. He started with Green level 500 gear, and plenty of bag space, and 10k gold. Not too shabby. I went Destruction cause I figured it was easiest way to start. My toon started on Draenor, and it had me plant banners, and click on flags which is an interesting new concept. The flags/banners we’re like ghost, and you click on them and it plants them and it shows up. At least no bag space taken up.  After doing a couple of quests it tosses you right into your Garrison, and you start working on them. I left it at that point. One of the uber cool things is I had ALL the mounts it seems like, so I road around on the Magic Rooster

Only problems so far, was it performed a little shotty but I was downloading the client at the same time, and/or I didn’t look at the video options they may be needed to dumb down.  So I won’t concern myself with that. I also had a problem with my level 30 talent, it would not let me pick one.

So in the days, weeks, months to come I’m sure I’ll have more news for you.

Yes All Women

This is not about gaming, this isn’t about anything nerdy except maybe the fact it was on Twitter. Gender is a topic that fascinates me as the roles we play, and how it shapes our live, also I am on Twitter alot, and a topic that is trending of late came up, #Yesallwomen.  I saw women complain about how men did that to them, or this. I was getting angry. Surely there are women out there that don’t have these issues with men. I mean I had to believe as a man that there are women out there that are not treated like prisoners of war. I thought wrong, but I’ll get to that.

So to see exactly if it is ALL women, or maybe just a couple over vocal women who have had these issues. I created a little survey.

Survey

The results thus far was VERY eye opening, and a little sad.

So here are the results of my survey, As of this writing I have had 35 people who identify as women take the study. If you identify as male, I’m sorry I tossed your data out, but thanks for taking the survey, and I assure you will get your turn to speak.

The Results

Question #2 Have you ever had a negative experience that was caused by a male (  A very very general question I know, but thought it was a good kicking off point)

Yes -100%

No- 0%

Not a real surprise here.

Question #3 – Have you ever been raped? 

Yes – 40%

No – 60%

This was damn near half of the women. This shocked me to the core.

Question #4 – Have you ever been physically abused by a male?

Yes- 51%

No – 49%

Another point of concern that it’s at near half, and half.

Question #5 – Have you ever feel threatened by a male? (Sorry shitty grammar here, but I did the survey in 5 seconds)

Yes – 100%

No – 0%

This question was a little general too I thought but still 100%.

Question #6 – Have you ever been sexually harassed by a male? 

Yes – 92%

No – 8%

Another disturbing result.

Question #7 – I left this open to comments. 

Some of the comments are truly disturbing. From waking up with being raped, to having boyfriends beat them, drug them, abuse them. Even a stepfather raping one of them. These are people who these girls and women are suppose to trust and count on.

This survey really opened my eyes. Where did this society go wrong. How come being born a woman is a prison sentence? Why must they live in fear?  It really made me think with my own dealings with women and I think I treated them right, and with at least some modicum of respect.  They say a few bad apples ruin the bunch, but we as a bunch and I say males in general need to police our own better.

I’ll leave the survey open a bit longer, but I don’t things will change much. Don’t worry men, I’ll give you a turn as well, but as for the women I don’t know what to say. I was wrong.  I guess it is All Women. 

 

 

A Tribute To Mythic

It was just announced that Mythic is being closed by EA. The writing was on the wall, and I knew it was coming, but it’s still bittersweet. Mythic is among giving me the greatest moments of gaming history, and the biggest heartbreaks.

Mythic made the first MMO I ever played, and it was the most brilliant thing I ever played. Dark Ages of Camelot, where I played a cleric named Riverian. I forged friendships in this game that would transcend the game, and after 12 years I’m still sharing these peoples lives, and they mine. I mean moments that I will always remember like killing Salisbury giants, or the sound trees use to make while farming them. Standing at the wall at emain to hold off attackers, or waking up at 2am for a relic raid. I can go on and on.

Then came Warhammer Online, this was suppose to be another great triumph but sadly it just well didn’t live up to all that I hoped it to be. I still loved Mythic they embraced blog writers like myself, and included me in a special promotion that to this day I’m very proud they chose me. When I closed my Warhammer blog, I kind of knew that things weren’t going well for them.

I wonder if Mark Jacobs still checks in here once in a while. I’m real curious as to his thoughts on the matter. My thoughts are with the employees, with out them all the great memories wouldn’t be there. I wish them the best and hope they find new homes.

Thank you Mythic, and salute.

Let Me Tell You A Story

This is a story from the archives that I wanted to get down for myself, more than anything. I’ve been thinking about this person a lot lately and I don’t know why.

Let us go through the mists of time, back when I was 19 and hanging out at the local bowling alley arcade where I played Street Fighter 2 like it was my second job. I was pretty much the best fighter playing that game, I would use Ken, or Blanka. Really any fighting game I was awesome at there, and I wasn’t bad with pinball either, but SF2 was my forte.

I was not the only king of the hill, there was another. His name was Greg. Me and Greg battled for supremacy all the time he favored Ryu, or Dhalsim. Our battles were legendary, people would gather to see us fight. When either me or him lost someone would step up and try to fight us, but we would crush them so bad it made the other one laugh. Some of the battles were such a workout I sometimes built a sweat like I was at a gym. We had some epic battles in Mortal Kombat as well. I was always Raiden, and he was Sub-Zero. When I exploded his head I made the same weird gesture Raiden did like I was blowing off his head.

Greg to look at was a typical stoner, long hair, listened to metal, wore a leather jacket even in 90 degree weather, and did copious amounts of drugs. After months of battling it out we became friends of a sort outside the arcade. We would hang out once in awhile. Then he disappeared, I really didn’t have a number for him. We just always met at the bowling alley. A few weeks went by, and I asked around and no one has seen him.

Then one day he shows up, his hair cut, and he was wearing…a sweater. I was like, “What the hell?”  He told me he found God, that after dropping acid one night, he thought he saw the devil, and sold his soul to the devil. He went to church the next day, and was saved.   I shit you not he told me this.   Now mind you do what you gotta do to get right with yourself, but the change was so drastic it was a shock. Ok so your a born again Christian, who cares. Let’s play a game, he told me that he was giving that up because he didn’t feel it was Godly. He tried to get me to come to church with him, but I had some very choice words for him. In retrospect I was real mean, and I always felt bad about it.  I never seen him again after that night.

I always wondered about what happened to him, and I miss those days in the arcade. The reason I bring this up though cause throughout my gaming history there has been those other players, who brought out the best gaming in me, who made me improve in my game. I’d like to thank the Greg’s of the world.  Wherever Greg is I hope he returned to gaming, and kicking someone’s ass somewhere and maybe one day I’ll see him again, and I’ll tell him sorry.

Weakly Lagout

High Latency Living –

Well tonight I’ll be doing a podcast with Scary. I’ll post it up when he is done. Also looking forward to Hearthstone, may play some STO, or SWTOR if I get a chance.  I just want to take time since it’s Memorial Day to thank all the service men, women, and their families and I include police, fire, paramedics who do their duty, and make sacrifices so we can live in a better place. Thank you

High Latency Love – 

Go give the Mistress of Faff some love at ALT:ernative…

High Latency Laugh – 

Mage Tier 18

 

With that…

MY PING SUCKS..I AM OUTTA HERE! 

 

 

 

Confession of a Reformed Botter

As I go into the confessional, I say, “forgive me father I have sinned it’s been..well a long time since my last confession. I lusted, stole, and one more thing I can’t mention.

The priest replies, “All sins are forgiven her my son”

I gulp, and say, “I use to bot in Warcraft”

The priest goes, “Get out, your excommunicated you piece of shit”

 

Yes I use to be a botter. I started back in the tail end of Burning Crusade, I was bored and a ton of my friends, who were also my coworkers, and guildies were doing it. I use to sit there at work while they check on their toons working away unattended and I admit I was amazed. The program they all used was Glider. At first I dabbled, cause I was scared I would lose my account. Then I got a second account to do all my gliding with. I would set it up and it would go to work at the beginning of the day, I would get home and be loaded down with stuff, and gold, or honor depending on what I wanted to do.

Was it cheating sure was, but the fact alot of my friends were doing it made it seem a little bit ok. I was enthralled at the toon sitting there pathing, and doing it’s thing Glider was a pretty nifty program. The community they had was pretty good bunch of guys too.

Well fallout came when Blizzard put the clamps on Glider, and to my surprise my main account took the hit and was banned, while my second account still was intact and which I still use today, and two of my toons were glided to 70 lol

I do miss my first account with my first toon I ever played with, and the mage I raided MC, and BWL with and that was the price I paid for botting. I never dabbled again because I left that job, and my coworkers and I seldom played since. I don’t even buy gold cause I don’t see the point, if your smart you can make all you need and more.

It was an interesting experience, and I don’t regret it but when I see a bot (and I can tell which toons are) I just shake my head, and go they’ll get you to one day.

Gaze into My Crystal Balls

I figured I never done a prediction post. I figured I would give it a shot. Feel free to come back in a year and tell me I’m a full of shit, and wrong.

Ok the day is May 21. 2015 and let’s take a look at the state of games.

ESO has gone Free 2 Play…and really empty

Wildstar is bleeding subs and about to go Free 2 Play.

WoW: WoD is a huge success with the Garrisons, though most hardcore gamers left, it brings in an influx of casuals.

War 40k :Eternal Crusade is in beta and looking good

Camelot Unchained is also in beta and looking like insane PvP.

Everquest Next is released but didn’t do as well as people thought it would.

Blizzard lets loose with info on Titan, and it’s scifi based and looks to be Wildstar like in concept. I predict Titan doesn’t do as well as WoW.

So there it is my predictions let me see if I have any soothsaying skills.

Iron Man Charity

Zeke at Iron Man Mode contacted me saying he’s having a Charity Event to send Iron Man Mode out with a bang.

 

I urge you to support him, and help him out…