überEllis.com

I love go-moku. I have been playing online daily for a little over two years. Much respect for the owners of little golem. They've been running this site for aaages, and it's all free. I've played on other online sites, this one has proven to have the most challenging opponents. With good feedback stats and excellent playing options.

Last week, I've reached a rating of 1636 - an all time high for me. I'm about to lose a game, though, so that peak is about to drop.

Ratings work get calculated for every rating challenge or monthly cup - the bigger the difference in players' ratings, the smaller the change in ratings after the game. Clever.

Image generated by Little Golem and used without permission.

An amalgamation of friends and influences have come together into the perfect setup in my bedroom.

Shortly after experiencing Mac splendour, I've come to the very hard conclusion that working is better on a Mac, and PC gaming might be a touch overrated.

First off, \\family welcomes Stevie the TV to the ranks, and loads of thanks need to go to (still blogless) irrational for making that possible.

With the efforts of Vertice and god, I'm the proud owner of a PS2 too (Still undubbed! Shocking!). Being a lover of platform and adventure type games, I'll not miss the constant driver updates, or the installations ad nauseum.

Now li5a and Peter(?) PS2 share my bedroom from where I can online chat, update a website or two, blog, watch a DVD and play a game (or 9). Yes friends - I'll be keeping myself busy with titles like Shadow of the Colossus, Viewtiful Joe, Rez and Psychonauts - not to mention catching up on some classic rpgs like Final Fantasy.

To my friends
You all kick ass and whip booty. I cannot explain how happy all of the above has made me, and to you all, I dedicate this blog entry and loads of love! I'm indeed extremely fortunate to know you.

This just in from our field reporter, irrational - It seems the long awaited return of theeeee best board game ever, RoboRally, as conceived by Richard Garfield (of Magic, the Gathering fame) is finally here (I use the term "here" loosely).

This should be good news to almost all the folk I've introduced this game to (and should make my second edition set worth a little bit more *beam*).

From: Wizards of the Coast (Avalon Hill)

RoboRally Returns, Part 2
When supercomputers get bored, some friendly robot racing spices up their existence -- and adds a bit of terror to the racers' lives. more..

I purchased a copy of Beyond Good and Evil after yet another visit to my notoriously bad influence, Vertice and his evil evil (so thumbs up! *g*) Sony Playstation..

Running on the same (I'm told) engine as smash-hit Prince of Persia, Beyond Good and Evil shows huge potential with a few novel approaches to adventure gaming.

It has never even crossed my mind to base a game on photography and the challenges and (in this case) the dangers of the trade. Despite the somewhat misleading title, nothing describes a force bigger than good and evil than the truth. There's no black and white here, only full colour images captured in precarious places (I'm secretly hoping the game gives you an album of all the shots you've taken afterwards - what could be more memorable than your very own album of photos?)

Third-person action/adventure games need a first person view in some cases, to help you decide on your plan of action...Jade comes equipped with a zoom lens! Inspired!

A female character in the lead? It's been done over and over...or has it? Unlike heroes like Lara Croft or an amazon lass from any RPG, Jade is not very strong and has to outwit some of her bigger foes or rely on help from her somewhat unorthodox friends (used without permission from Vertice - well put dude!), in a world slightly more magical than even Persia (I didn't think it was possible either).

Beyond Good and Evil further outranks Prince of Persia by diversifying into a more classic "Go there, get that" approach, instead of a PoP's somewhat rigid storyline, making it more challenging and fun, especially for die-hard-find-everything players like me.

So what went wrong? Why is the game not selling as well as one would expect? Here's what I think:

The Prince of Persia gamepad edition was a brilliant move, creating a fanbase that could not be beat. So why oh why does it not support gamepad play? Controlling the camera with the mouse feels clumsy and is often frustrating, especially after the groundbreaking camera work in Prince.

The PC version seems a bit buggy too - I struggled to get it installed and to run (but that might be due to the budget edition of the game *hangs head in shame* it's been a long month and \\Cl4uss didn't help), plus the camera has some issues on higher resolutions when driving the hovercraft.

(Truth be told, I have not yet installed the patch (v1.01) yet, which might fix some of the camera issues).
*Update* - The patch fixes a lot of the hovercraft rendering issues, but still no gamepad :\

Despite these little things (and the huge gamepad thing *grumble*), I still look forward to Beyond Good and Evil after work, so All Evil recommends at least giving it a shot (a little photographer humour there..)!!

PS: Bad influences are necessary evils in everyone's lives...I myself am a very good bad influence on several people. Get yourself a bad influence today or miss out on a lot of fun ;)

I'd love to stay and blog...but I gotta go play Doom3 ;)

Deathmatch of DOOM
Submitted by DemiGoddess on Wed, 2004/08/11 - 10:32am.
I remember the good old days when Doom was super-pixelated and freaking slow, but it ran like a sprinter on steroids on my P133 (I overclocked it to 166 -- with superglue on the chip. Can't believe that worked. Meh.) which, at the time, was serious tech. Yes, I kid you not.

Nowadays, its Unreal tournament on a Friday afternoon, and 16.00 signals the time we sign off the system, close the doors, and 11 of us engage in an all-out blood and guts shoot-'em-up. Flak Cannons totally rule. So does 0 Gravity.

Looks like we'll have to invest in Doom 3 now. Hawt. ;)

Jozi is freezing today... /random
Lon

I am a Goddess. You are a mere mortal. I have no use for you. DIE.

Reminisce
Submitted by MordracK on Wed, 2004/08/11 - 2:18pm.
Ah, the good ol' days - nowadays you can relive them on your average cellular phone. I don't have it on mine (not that my phone can, yet), but I do run Ubisoft's "Prince of Persia" for pure geek status.

Personally, I never played Doom in those days of yore - I was enthralled by the entire Castle Wolfenstein series, though (having played CW1 and 2 on the old Apple II via various friends)

I also played the more complex Descent instead of Doom and even Quake back then (and let's face it, that game was years ahead of it's time), claiming "Doom and Quake are simply not 3D enough".

After that I went through a major hardware drought missing classics like Master of Orion and Master of Magic (I did, however play CIV and Wizardry 7, oh! And Star Control 2 (recently open-sourced).

Only during 2000 did I see the error of my ways when I started playing Quake3 - and now, I look for a more simplistic game engine - so sadly, I confess, I'm not so much into Unreal Tournament. Not that there's anything wrong with secondary fire and variable environements an weapons with unpronouncable names (call a spade a spade for crying out loud)...I just prefer the more purely stylised, fast paced game, especially in fps and rts (I prefer the *crafts over the C&Cs, and I'm guessing you prefer the opposite?).

As far as Doom 3 is concerned, a must buy. Not for the faint-hearted...

Now that we've established some of your preferences in PC gaming, I'm dying to know your preferred format for Magic...Does the thrill of standard and new expansions get your blood a-boil? Or does the thought of Alpha and Beta get your toes to curl?

Have you played my favourite favourite, Robo Rally (Richard Garfield is god!), or Munchkin?

You had better stop appearing this interesting, gurl, I am a notoriously bad influence ;)

::BLINK::
Submitted by DemiGoddess on Thu, 2004/08/12 - 12:52am.
Uh.. wow. You know MTG?!!

Give the boy a hand, folks: he's now on my list of Top 10 favorite netizens ^_^.

Actually, I work for the Wizards Online Community as a moderator (WizO Illusen, in case you were curious). I used to play T2 exclusively, but it becomes an expensive hobby and I don't always get to go to FNM tournaments. Besides, my rating sucks, and I have little hope of getting it much higher. The boys have more cash to throw around for the good stuff than I do ;)

Been playing a lot of Extended and T1 lately, especially online. I play with friends of mine over AIM, and a really nice young man from Michigan has lately been opening cans of a special brand of whup-ass on me lately. Kinda brings a girl down to earth, especially since I'm used to winning casual games. ^_^

Garfield is awesome, but Rosewater's silly Ironman format takes the cake. Playing Ironman sealed with Mirrodin was a real test of endurance, since I had to tear up that *sniff* pretty Chrome Mox when I was done... Tried it once, won't have the stomach to try it again. *grin*

I'm planning on going into T1 Food Chain Goblins, but some of the cards are really hard to come by around here, so I'll have to ship 'em in. And I don't trust the local postal system, dude. I've had some cards go missing in the system on more than one occassion, including some Morphlings a friend sent from Manilla.

/end ramble about favorite passtime

Wow again.
Lon
I am a Goddess. You are a mere mortal. I have no use for you. DIE.

Right Answer!
Submitted by MordracK on Thu, 2004/08/12 - 9:29am.
My motto is "You haven't played Magic until you've constructed a creatureless deck (and I ain't talking silly permission decks either)" and what better format for that than type 1?

Most of our groups finer type 1 cards were accrued via ebay, as a matter of fact. It seems dodgy, but has proven it's worth in the past. Not a single lost card to date.

I bought my first "expensive" single at Icon 1997 and never looked back since (it was a Candelabra of Tawnos, and I still count it as one of my pride and joys). The last Expansion I've bought boosters from would be Urza's Destiny.

Exactly how do you play on AIM? Is there a special client? or do you just trust what the other player draws?

Sex and the City Of Brass
Submitted by DemiGoddess on Thu, 2004/08/12 - 1:31pm.
How do you play on AIM? Webcams and Microphones. ;) The 3 second trans-atlantic lag is annoying, but it's helluva fun playing against someone with a gimpy accent. ^_^ Otherwise Apprentice is useful too, and you can chat on that too. If all else fails, yes, you basically use the honour system, and you kind of have to trust each other.

Hardly as good as Magic Online, but infinitely cheaper, since you don't have to buy the cards. I spend enough on cardboard, spending the same amount on virtual cardboard just somehow makes me feel... twisted.

If you guys play pre-releases, I bet I've probably seen you, and didn't even know it. Although I didn't play the Fifth Dawn pre-releases, last ones I played was Darksteel. (Go Dismantle/Darksteel Reactor combo! w00t!)

The Urza block was so utterly broken... it was a bit before my time too, I only started playing around Invasion, so I'm a MTG n00b for all intents and purposes.

We should hook up on AIM one day -- I love creatureless decks, but hate playing against control... right now I'm going through an aggro phase... lots of Angry Little Green Men and Mountains ^_^ Gobbos Rock!™ So basically, the easiest way to annoy me is to go "Draw, Island, go." Instant grumble... may as well concede *sigh*.

::grumbles about IS' line outage making dotcom browsing impossible _yet again_::
Lon

I am a Goddess. You are a mere mortal. I have no use for you. DIE.

But I digress..
Submitted by MordracK on Mon, 2004/08/16 - 12:53pm.
I've started replying to this comment a couple of times, each time stopping halfway, 'cos there's just too much to say...so I'm biting the bullet and subscribing to your AIM presence.

For IM, I primarily use jabber (open-source) over Psi using Obsidian Systems' public server (I don't like my IM clients fluffy).

So I doubt webcam and microphones functionalities would work - but I am keen to try this as mentioned by a user of your very own Glitch.

Subscription Confirmation
Submitted by DemiGoddess on Tue, 2004/08/17 - 1:09pm.
Aww... you dissapoint me, Mordrack. I was expecting (not without some degree of girlish glee) a "Spot the Netspeak l337 HaX0r Ch1ck" remark after that attrocious and blatant misuse of the English language.

Yes, MWS seems to be a good idea. I am planning on starting a MWS League of sorts, with regular online play scheduled, and hopefully, (but unlikely, considering my Magic budget) some prizes. As soon as I've tested it thoroughly I'll let you know. And thanks for popping by my site. I didn't know you cared. ;)

"Subscribing to your AIM presence".... *smirk* Man, it must have killed you to suppress an outburst akin to "Leave now, and never come back!" /Gollum.
Lon
------------------------------------------------------
I am a Goddess. You are a mere mortal. I have no use for you. DIE.

If you thought 20 Questions was a good time killer, try out This funky little game. Very similar in concept to "The Incredible Machine" aka "TIM".

Über tip of the day: Write down the level passwords, they get trickier and trickier.

The Bard's Tale picks up Cary Elwes - GameSpot PC

Cary Elwes, the lead role in "The Princess Bride". I love that movie.

Is this a sequal/remake of the Bard's Tale of yore? From the Gamespt PC post it sounds a bit like a parody game, and far less an epic fantasy role-playing adventure.

I'll check it out regardless.

If you have a couple of hours to kill, try out this online AI for twenty questions: y.20q.net.

Some of the highlights during some of my games was the feedback after the AI correctly guessed "a brain"...to which it added (and I quote):

Uncommon Knowledge about a brain
Can you find it in a church? I say No.
Can you talk on it? I say Probably.
Can it be used in a pie? I say Yes.
Does it taste good with butter? I say Yes.

Uncommon Knowledge about a demon
Is it fluffy? I say Yes.
Does it make a good pet? I say Yes.

And (for the record...this wasn't my idea), some of the questions can be very funny if you think of "Crotch" - Go ahead...try it!

Most games have a random element, it's an unfortunate reality. Reducing the random element improves the skill level required to win at that game, and here's my reasoning:

If a player in any game needs to roll a die six, more often than not, it's either the 1 or the 6 that holds the most power. To roll either of those on a die six is always 1 in 6.

Now compare that with one die 20, where the odds are 1 in 20.

A common way of reducing the random factor in dice rolls by many game designers is to add modifiers to the rolls essentially improving/decreasing the odds of said die roll - despite that, I think a modifier on a die twenty holds way more ground over modifiers on 1 in 6 odds.

The above examples, of course, only applies to games that use dice. I shall further elobarate by examples from my favourite games, by explaining their random factors, and how they are reduced.

Let's just kick off with Magic the Gathering: The random element here; The shuffled deck, of course. Because MtG gives the player a selection of literally thousands of options in the construction of a deck, the player has the power of choosing the 60 cards that best suit his underlying strategy and it is thus possible, in theory, to construct a deck where any card drawn at any given time during the game could be considered usefull. On top of that, there exists several cards that manipulate the library, vastly reducing the random factor. Clearly, the biggest part of winning a game of magic lies more in the construction of the very random element...the deck itself. Making it skill based.

Next, Magic's predecessor, Robo-Rally:
The random element, again, the cards dealt to a player. It is common for a young RR player to complain about this very factor, but any experienced player could tell you, that simply planning ahead a bit, improves your game exponentially. Use your hand to your advantage, and use board-elements to get rid of useless cards (like saving that move 2 card in your hand while rotating on a conveyer belt - it doesn't set you back as much you might think - play towards the long-term goal). By keeping cards in your hand that you will need the next turn, takes away most of the random factor.

What about Backgammon? I'm not an experienced player and can't even begin to tell you all the rules or any of the subtleties - but I can tell you why I think it's rated so high internationally. The dice roll's value has little to no relevance, except for the time it's played. Rolling a 6 or a 1 or even a 3 can be considered a good roll only when the player in question needs that particular number - I believe the same could be said for bridge, making the most of what your dealt with.

Last not but least, Settlers of Catan - a game that's rapidly making waves and already has variants and expansions popping up everywhere. The dice roll in Settlers, affects all players, not the rolling player - as simple as that.

It's a pity the game designers of the WarCraft board game did not recognize the value of that simple fact when they came up with the combat system.

The only reason I think 6 sided dice, to this day, plays such a major role in game design, is because it's cheaper to produce little cubes than to contemplate alternatives to the random factor.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions based on personal preference and my reasons behind these choices. You can love your inferior *koff* games for your own reasons ;)

During the past weekend, we finally tried out the WarCraft boardgame..

I'd hate to say "I told you so", but "I told you so". Upon reading about the game online, I predicted something that's based on the esteemed "Settlers of Catan" with some elements of combat built in. To my dismay, the combat system is very similar to "Risk" - a popular game, I admit, but far too random in my humble opinion. Seperating combat into ranged, flying and melee was a step in the right direction, but an extremely lucky roll is still way to powerful, as our game on Saturday proved.

Before I get lots of hate comments from unfortunate googlers, I'm not saying the game sucks, and rolling a myriad of six-sided dice is a valid method for determining victory - I've seen much better however. Exploring some of the methods used in "Magic the Gathering" might be advantageous, and we will certainly explore some possibilities - the hardest part being to keep the races well balanced.

The game was slow...very slow - something that might get better once all the rules are well known, but still a bit cumbersome with regards to the amount of gamepieces for as little as 2 players (with a maximum of 4). Three player games has problems with balance, as two players invariably gangs up on a player during a weak turn.

I'll consider adding more feedback, if we ever play the game again.