Batty’s Blog

And that time has come again.  I’m off to Florida to visit with my older sibling and dragging our parental unit down as well for some “family” time.

I’m generally looking forward to this trip down as I’ll be trying out a new thing this time.  An official PADI Scuba Cert course so I can do some recreational diving with my brother his week off at the end of the month.

I’ll be honest and say that Jaws has always kept me leery of open waters but I’m nonetheless looking forward to this.  Hell, I think I even rack up a credit hour for a one week easy course from what I’m told.

Taking a camera with but without a working scanner at this point I’m not sure when I’ll be able to share any picture I may, or may not, wind up taking.

Also preparing my “Gamer” Resume to send back in to SOE so hopefully I’ll have the same luck this trip down that I did this pass Christmas.  Namely if the SOE Recruiter responds back this time to set up an Interview I’ll be able to take my happy arse to Austin to do it.  I’ve no doubt I can land the Community Relations job if I can just make it there for the Interview.

Yeap, I’ve still pretty well got a disdain for living in the area even though “The Bubble” still manages to hold me here for now.

Anyway, I’m headed out in a couple of more days so I’ll just wish the band of Douches well until I get back.

Just a few hours ago Cryptic Studios finally announced their secret project.  That of course is Star Trek Online; an mmorpg.

This particular game has had a bumpy start though.  Cryptic is the second person to hold the license so far. Perpetual Studios had it first.  Now known as P2 I believe.  P2’s handling of the product nearly got this game canceled for any foreseeable future.  Why? They breached contract by trying to “sell” the game, or parts of the rights to it, to companies outside of their contract agreement.  This compounds this issue because the contract for games is usually pretty standard.  Those standards usually have some sort of built in legal terms stating that if it bellies up the code to the game still belongs to the developer; even if they can’t use it without the License Owner.  Basically a sticky mess.

But, luckily, it would appear that all the building rumors have been true.  That one of the Cryptic fellas showed up at a convention in a Starfleet Academy t-shirt and used air quotations with his fingers stating they just got a hold of a secret project.  Then about 45 days ago Cryptic started hosting a countdown timer on their website.  This timer, of course, looked to be using some of the old STO art.

And now it is confirmed…

Personally, I’m excited.  I know Rooster doesn’t really seem to like, nor understand, mmorpg gamers…  for that matter perhaps most of the Douche Casters…  but I love’em.

Would you like to know more?

Then head over to…

http://www.startrekonline.com/

or

http://www.crypticstudios.com/

More about the game should be revealed at the official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in about 13 days…

Ok, so I’m borrowing from one of the Douche Cast shows today.  The one where everyone wanted to hook Rooster up with someone by making a fake-like stalker-ish profile.  My main focus will be on the expensive as Hell one called eHarmony though.  I’ll bitch about that some more later as I’ve experienced some of these other dating sites before as well.

Not to the Skippy peanut butter of this blog.  How accurate was my Profile?  Well, after jumping through God know’s how many questions I arrived at the following negatives.  I’ll let Biff or Rooster comment though as most of you will have no frame of reference on which to compare me to.

Negatives:

1. My Agreeableness:  Your emphasis on personal independence and personal responsibility may seem to lack in compassion to some people. Undoubtedly you have encountered people who feel this way toward you. And some may find you to be rather selfish. You do stay focused on your own life, take responsibility for your own problems, and are not always moved by situations in which some people think some action is required. That is part of you and your basic beliefs about life. And some people will inevitably want you to be different, but that is simply not who you are.
2. My Openness:   Not everyone will be thrilled by your commitment to the tried-and-true, and your practical solutions to problems of all sorts. Some people are in flight most of the time, leaving behind where they’ve come from and peering into whatever brand-new thought or experience they come across. They live for these flights of fancy. So they may find your commitment to the tried-and-true very trying and even boring. So be it; you won’t be a companion on their journey. And that is fine with you. You will likely continue on being quite satisfied with your approach to important beliefs and ideas.
3. My Emotional Stability:   “How do you stay so calm in this emotional storm. Don’t you feel anything?” Some of your friends might find you too controlled, as if you don’t feel things as deeply as they do.

   Your ability to stay so unflappable while they’re coming apart at the seams could lead them to believe you just don’t care enough, either about your own emotional world or about the pain or pleasure they’re so caught up in. This might lead them to exclude you from those seasons of their lives when their feelings are deep and they need to surround themselves with people they believe will understand the turmoil they’re in. They won’t think of you as such a person, so they won’t let you in on their emotional whirl.

4. My Conscientiousness:  People may have problems with your style for two reasons. First, you don’t always follow the rules or go along with detailed plans, whether at work or at home. Those who need the details to stay on task just don’t quite understand how you are going to get it all done. Second, while you get things done - the way you veer off course at times and use your creativity may leave others wondering what went on. Some people find all this creativity and thinking “out-of-the-box” at odds with their desire to follow a clear course. And this causes not only some confusion it may also spark some anger toward you at times. Even you would likely admit that living and working with you takes someone who is able to let you do your thing at times. If someone is really tied to a rigid approach to how things should get done, there is clearly the potential for some conflict with you.

   Every workplace and home does need a modicum of reliability and a decent amount or order and organization if it is to accommodate the mix of people who work or live there. That leads to a serious question for you: Are there times when your creative, though at times unpredictable, style keeps others off balance? Are there some plans that should be sacred, some space always well organized, some charts left as designed? Are there are some things you could change that would allow those who live and work with you to feel more in control; changes that wouldn’t impinge on your creative processes? If others are finding your style to be difficult to deal with you may want to consider how you can all work together most efficiently.

5. My Extraversion:  You may occasionally run into problems with other people. Particularly those who may want more from you than you want to contribute, ones who may feel that by holding back you’re not holding up your end of the social bargain. Others may guess, correctly, that there is a wealth in you that they would like to tap into, but may assume that you are unwilling to share. Their positive expectations will be confirmed on those occasions when you do open up. But your social style is one you have developed carefully and positively.

Now this eHarmony site, based on my answers, said these would be peoples negative reactions to me.  Let’s face it too.  These are the things that people want to hear about.  Can I live with the negative expectations of someone?   So with any luck Biff or Rooster can tell you if this sounds like it matches my quirky nature. I think it does to a point with just enough fortune cooky opinion to leave open the promiscuous flexibility that is crap chance talk.

You guessed it if you happen to still be reading.  It is bitching time.  Who the Hell gets off on charging $14-60 a month for a hitch up site?  C’mon.  If you really value getting people together you don’t charge “chit” for it.  Sure, we live in a consumer driven and monetary gain world now for the most part; but where the Hell is the Love?

You know half of the profiles are either doctored or faked anyway.  And you’re paying to ogle at that fake set of boobs or hard ass body (for the guys and girls) usually.  When did we turn into this big ass world society of losers that can’t just be honest with each other?

I’m a geek with some pretty high standards myself; but I’ll tell you that.  Would you?

I guess in the end I give these sites an accuracy rating of 8 when you tell the truth.  But they get a fail rating of 10 on ripping you off on a product you A) can’t predict and B) shouldn’t be charged an effin’ dime for.

Oddly enough out of a four state search on eHarmony no one matched with me.  Of which they say about 20% of their sign ups will have no luck with them.  That’s about 1 in 5.  Nice to know there are a lot of other picky people out there too.

If I hop on Fling or Adult Action Cam though… Whoa momma… you’ll have anything with a private part willing to be your “friend”… and still charge you…

wtf?

Greetings our loyal Douches and Douchettes. I’ve been a friend of Rooster’s and Biff’s since high school. You’ll probably see me in the Chat room as LunaticFringer but to our two friends I’m just Jake. In another gaming community my quirky personality earned me the nick name of Batty.  In that regard I may be having a bit of a personality crisis but I assure you we’ve got it under control.  At least the little voices in my head say so.

Moving right along I’d like to get into this first blog talking about something I like doing with my spare time; all the time, mmorpgs.  In short these are multi-player on-line role playing games in which you pay a monthly fee to play and get to experience a usually rich on-line world.  You’ve probably heard of the biggest time sinks already if you haven’t been living under a rock.  EverQuest, World of WarCraft, and Second Life seem to be the biggest names in the industry as far as the games being played.  The ameba of change has been both helping and hurting this industry though.

While I won’t get into the intricacies of actual game play I do want to bring your attention to this great (for the company) little, let’s call it a warning, statement on most of the game boxes.  Game Experience May Change During Online Play. Now ask yourself if you would play a game, buggy and unbalanced or not, just to potentially have the floor jerked out from under you every six months to a year?   Well, that’s a lesson Sony Online Entertainment has learned with Lucas Arts in bringing us Star Wars Galaxies.

In short some developers think it is a good thing to mix things up and make you relearn everything from playing a particular character type (Tank or Damage Dealer) all the way up to totally relearning the game because it’s been recoded from the floor up.  Now as a player of these games myself I’ve never thought it a bright idea to change the rules of the game.  I might like that attribute in a person’s personality like the fictional character of Captain Kirk; but not in the games I play.  I like solid ground.  It’d be like saying, “Ok, from now on instead of kids playing Cops and Robbers it must now be called Cops and Ninjas.”

Another heated argument, or two, about these games are how big of a time sink they’ve become. Ask any person that has had social problems playing World of WarCraft trying to run endless raids and you’ll quickly know what I’m talking about. The articles are out there as well.  Feel free to post up some links of your findings at the end of this.  Now an aspect I do think is becoming a new wave for these games is also the monetary value you can put onto your time investment.  It would appear that in the future of mmorpgs we’ll see business side sites set up to Sell in game items, accounts, and the like for real life money.  That’s right, an evolution to mmorpg-ebaying legally through your game provider all the while trying to combat this very thing now in the form of EULA restrictions and the commonly called sweat box Gold Farmers.

Wouldn’t things be much more fun if it were like Mario Brothers?  But admit it, your addicted to the grind too.  At least some of you are.  You know who you are.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for my first blog here.  Again, feel free to leave some responses.

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