Archive for "Games"
Advocate for Unaccountability
Posted on April 17, 2007 by Brian under Family, Games, Life, News.
OK, I know I don’t Blog much but every now and then I come across something that I just can’t keep my mouth shut about.
If you have been under a rock I’ll fill you in on the latest happenings so that my rant will make since. The other day a Student of the Virginia Tech School woke up and decided that it would be ok to shoot 33 students. That’s the short and skinny of it and that’s all you really need to know for my rant to make since. So here’s my rant!
Jack Thompson one of the largest protestors of video game violence and video game sex is claiming that this incident in Virginia is caused by video game violence. That this grown man (I consider anyone 18 or older grown enough to know right from wrong) played some video game like “GTA”, “Bully” or “The Warriors” (yes this was modeled after the 70’s film of the same name) and then went insane and shot up all of these people. Here is one point that good-ol Jack seems to forget! If the shooter seriously was affected by video games then he wouldn’t have shot himself. That’s right; you can’t commit suicide in video games. Instead he would have run out of the building in front of all the cops and started shooting at them thinking that he still has the ability to start the level over again, only to realize in the last minutes of his life that he is not in a video game. But these thoughts do not come to Jack, no! Instead Jack blames the video game industries and the distributors of the video games for contributing to the violence that he feels is caused by video games.
On Jacks web site he posts that he has tried to sue video game companies (and other various companies that he feels is offensive) for too much violence and too much sex. He admits in his site that he had sued Rappers; video game companies like RockStar Games and has yet to win a case. He goes on to show that other cases that he has fought for like the Columbine High School and Washington Sniper Shootings have been dismissed as well. He even goes as far as stating that the “God Mode” cheats available in some games that make you invincible lead to extreme aggression and violence. He even states that he uses a “Games Made Me Do It” defense when defending violent murders. Here is a direct quote from his site.
   “Jack is also one of the foremost proponents of the “Video Games Made Me do it” defense, which has so far failed to convince any judges. This defense is employed in an attempt to lessen the sentence of violent murderers, shifting the blame over to video game makers and distributors.”
How messed up do you have to be to try to get Violent Murders off and free by blaming video game companies. Why are we not blaming the murders for the events that they caused, what happened to taking responsibility for your actions? What happened to accountability for ones own mistakes? What happened to blaming the parents for the improper upbringing or telling the world that he was a good kid but fell into the wrong crowd. (more…)
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WOW, This Game is Addictive
Posted on January 29, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Games, Poker.
Pun intended. He he.
I have been playing a lot of WOW
I’m still digging poker but I haven’t been doing as well. Although, not always placing as high doesn’t mean that your game is sliding. To be honest, I think I’m playing way better than I have ever played in the past. I’m learning to read my opponents better… Before I used to just play according to the cards I’m holding. Now I find myself taking advantage of my position, the situation, my opponents weak plays etc.
Playing really good poker isn’t always enough, though. Sometimes it takes luck. Case in point, my final hand at APL last friday. I called the blind with pocket 8s in the dealer position. One of the blinds (I can’t remember if he was small or big) raised. It wasn’t a big raise. It was a medium-sized raise. Calling the raise with only pocket 8s may have been somewhat of a loose call, but I figured I had position. So I thought that if I missed, I could bail. The raise wasn’t that big so—no harm, no foul. But if I hit, cha-ching! Right?
Anyway, the flop came 2, 4, 10 rainbow. My oponent raised to $1500 but I could tell from his mannerism that he was simply trying to buy the pot. I put him on two high cards, maybe ace-king, ace-queen, or ace-jack even. I could tell he missed but he was putting me to the test. So even though the plan was to bail if I missed, I felt that my 8s were good in this situation. I only had $2400 left so I re-raised him by going all-in.
He thought about it for a long time until he decided to call. Even though I had him, I think calling was the right decision because it was only $900 more to him. He had the opportunity to knock out a player and he had two overs—he was holding ace-jack.
Naturally, I turn an ace which resulted in my demise. So much for my impeccable read. The problem with this hand is that I didn’t have enough chips to push him out. I think if I had enough chips to threaten his tournament life then I think it might have made for a tougher decision to call. Then again, with such loose players at APL who’s to say he would not have called regardless.
At any rate, it helps to get lucky sometimes. No worries, though. I know that my game is improving. I’ll get him next time.
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Burning Crusade is here!
Posted on January 16, 2007 by Brian under Games.
For those of you that are not rolling in the cool crowd, “Burning Crusade†is the latest expansion for the World of Warcraft MMORPG. If you don’t know what an MMORPG is you should really stop reading now because it will only confuse you.
I have been looking forward to this expansion since I first started playing. I got hooked on WOW with a few people I work with. We started a small guild, then merged with a bigger one that eventually merged with a bigger guild that finally went tits up and disbanded and now we are back to the glorious Pwndock Saints. I finally got a character up to level 60 (at the time that was the highest you could go) and then started PVP-ing to get good gear and make my character more powerful. Now that the expansion is out I have to level another 10 levels to get to the cap and start the work over again to get my elite gear. I will be participating in Raids and other large group events to insure that I get a great selection of gear that will make my warlock a force to be reckoned with. I am actually looking forward to playing the game as once I reached the 60 level I was worried that I was going to get bored. So far they have made it to where you have so much to do that it is almost impossible to get bored. The game is designed to have no end. You simply grind out levels, if you have a character that has done everything and is the top of its class; you simply create another class of character and do something different. A lot of the quest and gear are specific to a particular class like Warlocks, Mages or Warriors.
It’s remarkable that there are over 8 million people playing this game all over the world. So far I have run into children as young as 10 years old playing this game and today when I picked up my copy there was a very large man that looked to be in his 40’s picking up his copy as well. I probably won’t get to 70 as fast as some of the other people in my guild. But that’s because I have a life! You know the kind of life that provides me with a wonderful wife that lets me indulge in this kind of activity as long as it doesn’t interfere with the real world and suck me in to the point that I am doing nothing but playing the game and not having stupendous, wonderful sex with her. Cause I know for a fact that some of the 8 MILLION other players are not getting laid (masturbation doesn’t count).
So now that I have left you with a wonderful image of a 40 year old fat man sitting at a home built computer with more processing power than the human brain and a 32 inch LCD screen with picture in picture (so they wont miss there episodes of South Park while playing wow) in a dark basement in his mothers home in nothing but a robe, a stained tank top, boxer shorts that say “Once you go Horde you never get Bored†and a pair of “Incredible Hulk†Slippers that have the Crunch sound destroyed by his fat fucking feet…..I think my work here is done.
Happy Gaming!!!
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Checkmate
Posted on December 26, 2006 by Ching under Flickr, Games, Movies.
Today was kind of a disappointment but we managed to make the best of it. Today was supposed to be the day Brian and I get to spend to ourselves and enjoy our couples massage together at Healing Waters. The last few days have been really hectic (Christmas eve at my parents’ house in Derby and then Christmas day at Brian’s parents’ house, always an all day event) so we were really looking forward to our relaxing hour and a half massages. I had scheduled it as a surprise for Brian almost a month ago, but I ended up telling him about it shortly after. In the spirit of pragmatism, we agreed that it would just be our Christmas present to each other.
We started our day by having lunch at Chili’s. Our friends the Dills work there so we thought we would pop in on them. Anyway, lunch was good. When Dill found out that we were watching a movie that evening, he gave us a couple of movie passes. In exchange we left him a really good tip (almost as much as our entire bill). I thought it was nice of him to give us the passes. One good deed deserves another, right?
After lunch we hit the nearby Super Target to get some fruits and veggies for the suggies. Then we came home to take care of some last minute stuff and leave dinner in the cage for the suggies because we anticipated being out for the rest of the afternoon and evening. When we arrived home I found a message on my phone. It was Healing Waters calling to reschedule our appointment because one of the massage therapists assigned to us had fallen ill and was sent home. They could not find anyone to fill in. Brian was really mad and threw a fit. I felt really bad because I had scheduled this way in advance and I knew he was really looking forward to it. We ended up rescheduling for Thursday afternoon, but Brian was already upset.
Add to that the fact that we noticed Bebot’s “maintenance required” light lit up and would not go away. Being the worry warts that we are, we figured we’d just go to Eddy’s and have them check it out. Brian called them ahead of time so they would expect us. When we arrived, one of the Eddy’s guys looks at the car and fixes the problem by simply pushing a button. Apparently, the light is set to come on every five thousand miles. They are supposed to reset it each time we come for an oil change but we went at three thousand miles and I think they forgot to reset it or something. Anyway, I’m glad that Bebot is fine.
With that out of the way Brian and I decided to cheer each other up by having a contest. We said we’d give each other a hundred dollars each to spend at the mall and who ever got the most items for their money would be declared the winner. The only rule we had was that we could not buy crap just for the saying of having the most items. It had to be something that we wanted or would use. Naturally, Old Navy was the perfect venue for our competition. Where else can you buy a ton of crap for cheap?
Brian and I ended up getting about the same amount of items but his totalled about $75 and mine came to $99 and change. We declared him Victor but truthfully I think he had an unfair advantage because they usually have more guys stuff on sale. Next time we we have a contest I think we will do it like supermarket sweeps. The winner would be whoever can come closest to the maximum limit without going over. Although, if we do it that way then I’d have an unfair advantage because I’m better at math. LOL. Of course, Brian could always use a calculator. There won’t be a rule against that.
After Old Navy we stopped by the Gap (Brian still had $25 more to spend and I wanted to see if we could get another pair of his-n-hers matching shirts–yes, I like to torture Brian–incidentally, our total came to more than what he had left but that’s ok because we got our matching shirts–LOL). Brian found some cargo pants he liked and I found us some green mens tees on sale for $5 a piece. I got one in XS and Brian got one in XL. He was really hoping I wouldn’t be able to find a shirt that came in the sizes we needed, but I’m pretty resourceful. Now we have four matching shirts! We have our Nerve shirts (I think these were our first), Blogger shirts, red shirts and now our green shirts. I made him promise to wear it to poker on Friday and he agreed. (more…)
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Winning, Anger and the Crack Addicted Chimps!
Posted on August 13, 2006 by Brian under Family, Games, Life.
On Thursday August 10 my wife and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We had decided that we were going to take a trip to Kansas City and play in a poker tourney their and stay at Harrahs Casino. We have been to Kansas City several times but not to this end, normally we stay around the plaza and don’t venture farther than that. This time we had to go to North KC which took us thru a totally different Highway System. Let me start here and say that the KC Highway System had to be designed by Crack Addicted, ADD inflicted Chimpanzees! It is the most insane thing that I have ever seen in my life. We were following directions that were given to us by Google Maps. At one point it told us to look for the I35, I70, and I210 exchange. So we did. Come to find out this is an intersection where ALL THREE highways intersect into one freaking point and continue for several miles. Then they all branch out again but not in the normal fashion (oh no!). Instead for example, if you entered from the right which was I35 you now had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get all the way over to the left to catch I35 again. If you entered from the left then you had to cross over to the center and so on. Then there were the on ramps! These were not normal on ramps, these things stretched on for miles and seemed to twist and turn and contort so that you thought you were on a roller coaster not an on ramp. At one point I felt like throwing my hands thru the sun roof and yelling WEEEEE as we went around the on ramp. Then we get to the final annoyance of the
KC Highwaysystem, the signs. At one time we were following the signs to get back to the highway when all of a sudden the highway sign that we were following just disappeared. We are in the center lane of rush hour traffic and we are completely lost. Our highway just vanished and I could not see any options for another turn. I ended up going around the block to only run into another sign for our highway. We were completely dumbfounded. We HATE the KC highway system. Needless to say that after that we did not leave the hotel for the rest of the trip.
As for our poker tourney that is a story in itself. So let’s get started at the beginning. We get their and get our entry paid and find out the seating and rules for this tourney. Ching and I were hopeful to win but were realistic in the thought that we probably would not as this was a new experience for us (playing in a tourney of this magnitude around players that come here to make a living off of this). We both get seated and give each other good luck kisses and start. After about an hour I look over to see Ching walking toward me. I could not believe she was knocked out so soon. I thought to myself this is incredible, she is by far a better player than me and she is already out. It’s just a matter of time before I go out. I managed to get luck on my first 2 hands and get high card Ace for the win followed by pocket Aces for the second win. After that everything went dead and I barely played a hand. I told Ching to stay close so if I got knocked out I wouldn’t have to go far to find her. Break came and I decided to see what she was doing. There was no cell coverage in the building so I had to locate her the old fashioned way, by using my dammed eyes (what is this world coming to). I only had ten minutes and as time went by I got increasingly frustrated and worried then it just turned to anger. My ten minutes were up and I was so pissed that I decided that I was just going to dump the game hunt her down and tell her just how pissed I was. I ended up getting the big blind on the second hand returning from break. I didn’t have many chips so I went all in. One guy asked if I was going to look at my cards and I looked at him and said with a resounding tone “Nope!†This sparked several callers at the table and several worried people that eventually folded. All in all I had 4 callers and the other three could bet. One guy didn’t have much in chips left and after the flop he went all in as well. One guy folded and the other called. The 2 that were still able to bet turned their cards over and the dealer laid out the turn and the river. The short stacked guy lost to a pair of aces, I figured I was done and turned over my cards to discover that I had king jack. This was great because the table had 2 jacks on the board which meant I got three of a kind and won the bigger pot. I looked over at the guy that won with the aces (who was also the guy that asked if I was going to look at my cards) and he was glancing at me with an almost disgusted look on his face. Like he should have won just because I didn’t not look or something. This kind of put him on tilt because after a few hands he was gone at the table and they condensed us. I had 4 more all-in’s and survived. It was an incredible run. Top six paid out and I turned to my wife and said “Watch me get knocked out on the bubble!†I was the target, I was the short stack and everyone wanted me dead. Every time I went all in I was sure I was gone but every time I pulled back more and more chips. There were 10, then 8, then 7 then all of a sudden I was in the money. I couldn’t believe it. Then all of a sudden it was 5, then 4, then 3! I looked at this one guy next to me as my wife is cheerleading in the background and he says “your like that dammed hang-nail that won’t go awayâ€. I looked back and said to him “no, I’m more like that last cock roach that you have sprayed smashed and poisoned and he still won’t dieâ€. He laughed and every time I won a hand after that he would turn to me and say “Why won’t you just dieâ€. I turned to the tournament director and asked him “How much does 3rd get†(thinking to myself that third is better than nothing). He tells me the denomination and no sooner did I say that, the guy to my left gets knocked out and it’s down to 2 people. I immediately turn to the director and ask again “How much does 2nd place getâ€. This got lots of laughs and I continued till I was finally knocked out in 2nd place. I couldn’t believe it. I came in to this game as the under-dog beating out 38 other players to take home 2nd place and $414.00. I was amazed and I don’t think it really hit me till I got back to the room. Ching thinks that it was my pissed off bought that got me thru it and wants to start pissing me off more before we play poker now. I told her I would rather not. I immediately called my folks who were also amazed. I mean I never win anything at poker, the occasional home game but nothing major like this. It just show that you can never underestimate that desperate cock roach, other wise he will come back to life and take it all.
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