The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Beware, I’m going to ramble on really crazily about Kingdom of Loathing now. You’re probably not interested.

So just looking at the descriptions and such made me want a Naughty Origami Kit, (as well as the fact that I always thought the other items of this type, the Iceberglet and the Great Ball of Frozen Fire, were really neat) and I went, you know what, fuck it. And I picked one up. And now I’m wondering what’s up with it. I mean, like I said, it has some funny content in there. I love just about every message on the origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, for instance. However, that’s rarely going to be better than all the buffs and boosts from my Mayflower Bouquet. The Entangling Noodle effect of the Naughty Paper Shuriken on people with pants is nice, but most bosses don’t have pants, actually, so that’s kind of a problem, as that’s when I’d like to use it. The origami pasties are great, especially early on when the 100 power is way above anything I can equip, but not… flashy and visible. The origami riding crop has a really neat chat effect, but I’m never in chat, and some funny hit messages. I’ll probably use it when I run a Muscle class next for the first few levels, but I tend to enjoy Myst and Moxie classes more, in all honesty. Finally, the Naughty Fortune Teller… we’ll see on that one. Although hardcore players don’t use them, apparently, cookbooks feel way too important to my spellcaster strategy to equip a different off-hand item, and I’m currently a Sauceror. There’s some debate on how effective it is, though, as in it might be close to if not completely optimal, so that might be what I end up using. I do think that the mechanic of it is really neat, though.
Anyway, I find myself in a weird position. I originally didn’t buy Mr. Store items because I worried about having this dilemma, about not being able to always use these neat items I got. If I bought them I was going to use them, was the idea. My snap decision, purchase, and enjoyment of the Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. I bought in December, though, made me think that I should just go ahead and try it if it looked good, and I’ll probably enjoy it. So I saw this, and wanted it, and I got it. And now I’m confused as to how to use it effectively…
Basically, I don’t regret my decision at all, but in the future, I know I’ll probably be making my Mr. Store purchases later in the month, after I’ve come up with a firm plan of how I’m going to use whatever it is so I can enjoy it to the fullest.
I am such a weird player. I play so sub-optimally, and yet I worry about how best to take advantage of things like this, you know? It’s like I want to be good, but I want to be good to my eyes, and not actually good. I don’t know. I’m weird.

So I expected my first game of Betrayal at House on the Hill to be today, because I figured everyone would be free and come over? But everyone randomly came over yesterday, and we played two games. Besides me getting insanely unlucky when I betrayed everyone and the normal learning of the rules, everything went okay. It’s a pretty fun game, but man, people weren’t lying when they said the rules were a bit off. There are problems all over the place, and there are these huge errata documents, and you need them to play. But so it goes.
On Jonathan’s random suggestion that new Haunts could be easily created for the game, I found myself brainstorming at work and then writing three when I got home. Who knows if they’re balanced, though. Also, I couldn’t think of any good names for them. One is named “Il Cartographer” for crying out loud. Who knows if they’ll ever be used. At least I got them out of my head.
Anyway, we’ll probably play some more later today, I think. Hopefully with a full 6 people.
I also finished reading I Am America (And So Can You) last night at work. It is a damn funny book. I enjoyed it the whole way through, and people kept asking me on break what I was laughing at and I had to share. If you liked America: The Book, or if you just enjoy the Colbert Report in general, you should probably read the thing. Because it’s an enjoyable time. Anyway, now Jonathan gets to finally read it, and I… I get to keep reading Watership Down, which I started completely on a whim. Why? I dunno. But the first 10 chapters were pretty interesting. So I’ll work on that, I guess. I don’t know.
I got things and things and things to do. And things. To do. Things.

So I saw the Producers tonight, and it was as wonderful as always live. They did a really good job with obviously less people and money than the last time I saw a touring show of the Producers. It was a good time all around with my family. Huzzah.

I have also managed to ebay up a copy of the out of print board game Betrayal at House on the Hill, which, from what I hear, is both flawed and COMPLETELY AWESOME. So I’m looking forward to playing that with everyone. From everything I’ve heard, I think it’s perfect for my group of friends.

Also, apparently Brer is offline for a few days due to some silly something on his school network? And I wanted to ramble about how flawed it all seems. Apparently the college got some blanket “these people are downloading music!” shit, and so they apparently just randomly shut people’s connections down. Brer now has to pay THEM money to check his computer for “bad stuff” before he can have his computer back. This is insanely stupid because one, they have no real proof, and have said so, and two, anyone actually doing anything illegal and thus is smart enough to, say, use a bit torrent client is smart enough to TAKE THE DAMN STUFF OFF OF THE COMPUTER BEFORE IT’S CHECKED. It’s not like they raided his room or anything. He just has to take the PC down to the computer center sometime and pay “it’d be really bad if you lost your connection…” threat money if he wants his connection back. Anyway, it’s really stupid, and I’m sad to not have Brer for awhile, but at least it shouldn’t cause anything more than an annoyance for him. I’ll call him tomorrow for more of an update, I learned all this while at dinner with my family in a noisy restaurant, so we didn’t have much time to talk.

Also Also, Rez HD is pretty sweet. I really suck at it, but I totally buy the whole “Synthaseia” thing. It’s quite an experience. Who knows how long it’s going to take me to beat all 5 levels, though. I managed to get through the first two today.

What other short update can I ramble about… oh, right. My phone. I finally updated my phone’s firmware today, after Jonathan was all complaining at me that mom couldn’t call me to look up a word online? I’m just a reference tool a lot of the time, because they know I’m on the internet and can look anything up. Anyway, I finally updated it, even though I didn’t have the cable it said I needed. It all worked fine, though. Hopefully it won’t crash as much now, and it added these nice little “mute” and “speakerphone” buttons which are a TON more useful than how I used to have to do it. Also, it gave me this free Sudoku game, which was nice. I like the interface in Brain Age better, but it’s pretty capable.

I tried to get my mother to play Picross DS today. She keeps actually liking the random games I throw her way… she keeps playing Bookworm Adventures because it “helps her brain.” So I keep trying to throw more of what I own that’s along those same lines at her, and I really love Picross. I think she was okay on the concept, but I have a feeling it’s going to be too complicated for her. We’ll see. She got distracted and didn’t get through the tutorial.

Rapid Fire Ramblings is a good name for this sort of blog post. Maybe I should use that, like how I sort of stumbled into and kept “Review Extravaganza Xday” and such.

So I can’t play Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.
I thought it was just that I couldn’t play MUCH of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin? I’d play it in little spurts. That’s fine, I thought. It’d last me awhile. But I’m to the first level where I’ve hit a stalemate, and it’s going to take me gods know how many turns to break it. And I just don’t want to. And I don’t. I mean, I want to push through the campaign so I can unlock all the COs for multiplayer, but I just can’t do it. It’s just like in Risk. There comes a point where you know a player is going to win. They’ve won the game. But to actually beat everyone in the game, it’s going to take another hour of pointless dice rolling. Hard Advance Wars levels can easily get like this. I know I will beat the computer. I’m not in danger of losing. But the number of turns it would take is just not worth my time. And so I put the game down.
Now, I’m not saying Advance Wars: Days of Ruin isn’t a good game. Because it totally is. It’s a great game, a vast improvement from a mechanics standpoint from Dual Strike, very friendly to those new to the series, and offering the robust online play that the hardcore want. But I know how to play the game. It hasn’t taken me too long to get most of what there is to know about using the new units. (I think Carriers might be more powerful than I’m giving them credit for, but that’s about it.) And once I figure that out, all that’s left is this great game, but a great game I have played to death, and when it confronts me with these “waste 20 turns to push past this stupid bridge” moments… it’s hard to care.
This all got started because Parish put out a call for “what should we ask the people behind Advance Wars” for this interview they were doing, and I eventually wrote up some things I wanted to hear, a lot about their process in making units and balancing them, as well as justifying the attempt at a serious story in a game with silly gameplay mechanics, but it made me realize that I hadn’t played the game in like 2, 3 days. So I put on a podcast and start and I put it down in like 10 minutes. I dunno. It’s just… it’s kind of depressing, I guess. Advance Wars is one of my favorite series… oh well, I suppose I have Culdcept Saga to enjoy next week.

Also, there seems to be a lot of talk recently about how I seem incapable of getting tired of Kingdom of Loathing. Here’s why, in a numbered list. 1) It doesn’t take much time in the day to do. I rarely play marathon sessions and when I do, it’s after not playing for like 4 days, so it’s not old. Also, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care about being optimal, so I don’t mind if I don’t play for a week and then come back. 2) It’s perfect to play while podcasting. 3) It’s neat to see my set of skills build over time as I perm them and make me more flexible and more powerful. 4) I play as one class for like… 2 months. And then I ascend and switch. The classes do play differently. Not a whole lot, but enough that it keeps the combat from being completely old. I’ve been every class, but for the past few months I’ve only been Pastamancer… so now that I’m a Sauceror, the various splash buffs make the experience different. 5) I listen to the Jick and Skully show and thusly I am constantly hearing about all the new stuff they’re working on, and it’s all really neat. 6) I’ve still got goals to shoot for. I want the Tome of Transcendent Olfaction and the Pompadour’d puppy. That takes a lot of time. And when I get done with all that, I do want to see all the cool content in Bad Moon. Hell, just going Hardcore Oxygenarian to get the Plexiglass Pocketwatch made the game feel a lot different, because as a “normal run” player, I do get dependent on Hagnk’s and the mall for various items. It also made the game slower, which meant I could play less often and not lose any turns, which is good for getting over boredom with the game. If I feel boredom setting in, I’ll be doing another Hardcore Oxy run, you can be sure. Probably as a Seal Clubber. 7) Finally, even being on my tenth ascension, there are still jokes that I missed that I will randomly get and make me laugh my ass off.
Anyway, there’s some reasons. Does that clarify? I don’t know.

This has been a look at two games I love, one that I’m sick of and one that I’m not. Feel free to use this to figure out how I get sick of things. Or something. Hell, I dunno.

Great Batman Story or The Greatest Batman Story? You decide.

So I find that, even given that it’s been a couple years (okay, apparently a little less than 2) since I played an Advance Wars title, I am still burned out on it. I played the first two on GBA SO DAMN MUCH. So much. I can’t focus on more than maybe one or two battles in a go, and then I just have to put Days of Ruin down. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing, well made game… but I’ve just played it so much that even the new and welcome tweaks to the formula aren’t enough to get me over my… boredom, I guess, with the core gameplay. Not bored… I don’t know. I just look at the next mission and in my head I KNOW how many turns it will take me to beat, and I just don’t want to go through that. So I turn off the DS until later. I don’t know. Don’t let these comments keep you from buying it, because, as I said, it is a very nice re-envisioning of some of the more ridiculous aspects of the previous game (Dual Strikes were just… obscene and ridiculous and there was no way they were ever going to balance them… or most of the crazy-ass CO powers, really…) into a more balanced, interesting experience. It’s good. I just can’t play it for long periods of time. Just like I couldn’t when Mario Golf: Advanced Tour came out… I’ve played so much Mario Golf SO MUCH. I love it dearly, but oh so much of it have I played…
I should do a Review Extravaganza Xday on Undertow perhaps. I dunno. Whatever. I’m going to try to beat another mission in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin before I get sick of it again.

So I was doing this history project and trying to think of weird little things in history to put in there instead of the big stuff, because it’s supposed to be fun, you know? So, for whatever reason, I think of Dani Bunten Berry, the male-to-female transsexual who created the game M.U.L.E., which is this huge deal and which I need to play at some point in time. So I check out her wikipedia page to see if the dates of her doing all this would fit, and I’m browsing along, and I read “After a third failed marriage, Bunten, who had until then been living as a male, transitioned to living as a woman. Bunten later regretted this decision.” And there was a link to the source for this comment. So I go and I read the source, and it’s this rant about how transitioning didn’t ruin her life, but it did cut her off from people she cared about and cost her a lot of money and cut off her sex drive, and if she could do it all again she wouldn’t have gone through with it.
I’d only heard about her like… vaguely. It was only like last year I heard of M.U.L.E., and then it seemed like I started seeing it everywhere, as this sort of small gaming classic back in the day, and knowing that a transsexual was behind it… you know, it was comforting. It meant that, you know, it’s all doable. One can make it, you know? And although I know the state of the internet and information on it is nebulous, and all this might not even be true… it’s just depressing to read and learn about anyway… I dunno. It’s going to be hard. It really is.

In happier news, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is awesome. I’m going to go to bed and play more of that now.

So Droid totally bought an Eee PC. I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile, and I played with his for a few minutes, and now I want one all the more. The thing could probably fit in most of my big pockets, it’s so small. The screen was a bit small, but everything was very clear and visible… he was running XP on it and it was working flawlessly… oh man. I do want one.
Problems with me getting one: It costs money that I would have to pay, I don’t have a USB CD or DVD drive so I couldn’t install any other OS on it myself, if I wanted to install Windows on it I don’t have any sort of “key” with which to do that. I went and looked for how cheap OEM copies of XP are… good lord, they’re expensive. Fuck you, Microsoft, seriously. I’d buy a legal copy if it wasn’t 150 bucks. For 20 bucks more I get another Rock Band bundle.
Anyway, I was this close to buying one yesterday, and resisted… I can keep resisting, I’m sure, but man, I want one…
Oh, while researching it, I also found this. It can apparently like… streamline and shave down your Windows installation and stuff. That would be useful for installing Windows on that little lappy with the 4 Gig SSHD.
Oh man, I dunno. I’ll keep resisting for now…

So Brer and I had this like… several hour argument last night? It was over nothing, and my feelings certainly aren’t hurt or anything, and I highly doubt his are either. I mean, we were talking about Fallout 3 and stuff. But it was very heated. A little ways into it, I really wanted to drop it, because it was going nowhere, but I found I wasn’t letting myself do that. And as it kept going I think I figured out why.
Brer is a very informed person. Like… very. He seems to have facts on hand for everything. And, you know, that’s awesome.. It’s part of who he is, and I love him for who he is. But it… when I get into any sort of argument with him, he lists these facts, and I don’t have them in my head to point out where he’s wrong effectively. That’s also fine, in general, because, you know, I could go and read up on everything and stuff, and choose not to. That’s my call. I’m fine with making it.
The problem is he takes the argument or discussion out of the realm of sort of… vague intellectual debate and into fact-checking when he does this, and that means I can’t… win. There’s pretty well no way for me to be able to do it, you know, because every sort of idea I have to try to dismiss these things and bring it back to an arena where I can compete is met with more facts I can’t compete with.
I’m not stupid, you know? There is a difference between being informed and being intelligent, and I’m intelligent, but not always informed. But constantly losing and having my ideas shot down just makes me want to… want to win once, so I can say “See? I can go toe to toe with you.” I don’t think I’m that notch below him on the smartness scale, but I feel like that sometimes, and I don’t really like that feeling, you know? So I argue and argue and argue over nothing, trying to make him concede something, anything… and then it’s like 3 AM and nothing has changed.
So yeah, that’s why I keep playing devil’s advocate and fighting on and on once these things get started, even when I agree with him. I don’t know. Just how I feel.

So I played Rock Band tonight online with people from Talking Time. It was a lot of fun. I sang on Hard. I found that I am a lot more accurate if I like… sing everything falsetto and breathy and feminine. I don’t know why that is, but I was getting like… 90% instead of my normal like… 86% when I try to sing like the singer and such. Who knew? Also, I find I like Electric Version quite a bit even though Essner really dislikes it. I mean, not like Mass Romantic levels of like, but enough for me to seek out a copy of it. Oh well. Too bad for Essner, he’ll just have to not enjoy it as I play and sing it or whatever. Also, I found I suck ass at singing Reptilia. Mostly because I realized after I had picked it that I had never sung it before. Seriously, I got like… 67%. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is playing online with a full group is just about as fun as offline, though the malfunctioning of the headsets made it hard to… talk much. But oh well. Hopefully we won’t have that problem next time.

I should be in bed, but I’m not.

Also, I’m probably late to the party, but did you see this video of the Bionic Commando Remake for XBLA? I tried the original back when I picked up this little Capcom Classics GBA cart from work on the cheap, and I sucked at it. I’m horrible at old school games nowadays. But that looks to add more interactivity. And co-op? Fuck yes. That’ll get ten dollars of Microsoft Funmoney when it comes out.
Oh, and while I’m linking shit, they have this flash demo of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney over here. If you ever wanted to know if you’d like playing a Phoenix Wright game, try that out, and then imagine that over a whole game, because you do basically do everything you do in the games in that demo… well, okay, besides the investigation parts, but you know… the text… that’s the important part… if you like that.

I’m tempted to write something here about how my mom thinks I’m a failure and keeps communicating this to me in a roundabout, covert kinda way, but I don’t think I want to get into it. I think thinking about is what made me so drifty and unable to concentrate and quietly depressed this evening. I think I’ll just go to bed, play a little Picross, and sleep.

Hi, everyone. Still sick. Coughing up a storm, so… if you see a storm, probably my fault. Sorry.

Classes have been going okay so far. Lowish stress. We’ll see if I can keep that up. I hope so.

So I was working today and thinking and I realized I’m scared to let  Brer read what I’ve gotten down for Role-playing. It’s not so much that I’m afraid of criticism or anything like that… it’s just… I don’t know… it is kind of a big project. I’ve done well so far keeping working at it. But I feel, I guess, like if he doesn’t like it, I won’t feel any support from him, and then I’ll stop. Or something. I don’t know. The story isn’t high art. It’s just supposed to be fun. And I know we have different definitions at times with this stuff… hell, I dunno. Oh well, it doesn’t really serve any purpose to worry about it. He’ll see it eventually, and we’ll see what happens, eh?
I hope to get through Chapter 5 of Arc 1 this week, since I’m not working… shouldn’t be too hard… I’m taking a break tonight, though, because I feel dizzy and cold and miserable. Maybe I shouldn’t, but eh. It’s supposed to be fun, not a chore. As long as I keep chipping away at it, I’m winning in my book.

In other news, I’ve started playing Picross again. I’m surprised at how many Normal level puzzles there are. Just when I think I’ve unlocked them all, they unlock a few more tiers. It’s nice. I don’t think I can handle the “Free” level puzzles… I like doing them on the DS because I get feedback if I fuck up, so I don’t end up at the end and get frustrated not knowing what I did wrong, you know? The “free” ones don’t do that. You can only solve them by trying out things a certainly way using the little “try but not really put dots there” mode. In any case, I think I’d really frustrate me, but we’ll see if I can handle it when I beat the Normal level puzzles. Also, there’s a whole lot of official download puzzles I can get from Nintendo if I run out of Normal level ones, I suppose. But man, Picross is fun. Seriously, it’s only 20 bucks. If you like little puzzles at all, go pick it up.

Tommorow’s Agenda: Wake Up, Food, Look for a copy of OXM for Exclusive Rock Band songs, Class, Food, Class, Waste Time with Brer/Write.