The New Year in Games part I.b

Not quite part II yet, but a few followups to the previous post.

1) The former 1up show crew has their new company setup at http://www.area5.tv (named after the final, and all important, level of Rez). There you will find the first episode of their new show, Co-Op, available through download and their Youtube channel (please support the Youtube channel).

2) James Mielke is returning to 1up.com, and with him comes the return of cover stories. I think that's fantastic news, and really shows the the UGO guys appreciate former 1up staffers. And Mielke's not the only former 1uper to return to the site, but he's probably the most high profile.

3) I neglected to also mention Ryan Scott has, in the wake of the 1up layoffs, also set up his own site at http://www.geekbox.net, and is producing a weekly podcast as well, available through the usual sources.

The New Year in Games

A lot's been going on for me in gaming since the beginning of the year, other than World of Warcraft completely recapturing my soul. The first thing I need to talk about is the collapse of 1up.com.

Ok, collapse isn't the correct term and does a severe disservice to those who remain, though it certainly represent my perception of the transition. But before I get to that, some background is in order: When I was in eighth grade I bought my first non-Nintendo Power gaming mag, and it was an early issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM). I'm not sure whether it was the first issue or not, but it was easily in the first six months. For the next ten years it was a primary source of gaming information in my life. Until the internet came along.

With the advent of on-line publishing, print media began to slowly die. Many gaming sites popped up in the mid to late 90s but none of them clicked for me. None of them until 1up was begun in 2003. It should come as a surprise to no one that 1up was the online presence of Ziff-Davis' games publishing arm. The same group that made EGM. A huge part of the success of 1up should be attributed to the podcasts and the 1up Show. Those podcasts and the video podcast provided a lot of coverage of the gaming industry and community from such a natural perspective. It was the only online general gaming coverage that felt like it was really presented by people who knew, loved, and lived games - at least to me. Others may cite CAGcast and the like, and that's fine. But for me it was all about the guys and girls at 1up.

After a string of print cancellations in the ZD games publishing wing and a number of the old guard leaving the organization, it all came crashing down. In early January it was announced that ZD had sold the games publishing division to UGO. With that sale, ZD shuttered EGM and layed off a massive number of staff members, notably many who were involved with the podcasts, and the 1up Show staff was completely let go. At one time EGM alone had something like 15 editors... and now there's that many in all of the 1up offices. Sad times.

But all is not lost. Garnett Lee is going to be able to continue the podcast he hosts, though the 1up Yours name will be leaving in a nod to new beginnings. The guys from 1up FM podcast are now putting out their own material under the name Rebel FM, and can be found at eat-sleep-game.com. And best of all Ryan O'donnel and Matt Chandronait, along with a bunch of the other 1up Show guys, are working on their own video project, the first episode of which is due soon. You can read all their updates at Matt's personal site talkingorange.com. I wish them all the best and I'll be there for whatever they produce. Shane Bettenhausen is moving on to work for Ignition Entertainment, the company that's bringing KOFXII to our shores, and that sounds like a great fit for him. Haven't heard a thing about what James Milkman Mielke is moving on to, but I hope it's something that I'll be able to follow.

The 1up glory days will forever be remembered. Good luck to all who have moved on by choice or by force. Keep producing, and I'll keep listening, reading, and watching. UGO may not be completely responsible for the lay offs (or they might, you never know) but there's no way they can possibly realize what they lost in the aqcuisition.

Hopefully in the next few days I can return with the other gaming issue taking up my mind currently: Street Fighter IV, and those beautiful Tournament Edition arcade sticks.

Disney 2008 is Done

It's always a bittersweet occasion upon leaving Walt Disney World to return home. It never last long enough, but after a week I'm also ready to sleep in my own overly comfortable bed, and pet my cats. This year was certainly no exception.

We stayed at Coronado Springs Resort for the second time this year. We miss Animal Kingdom Lodge a little, and having outdoor-entry rooms at Coronado isn't as comforting/private as it could be, the convenience of travel to the parks is really unequaled at CSR. Ten minute or less bus rides from Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios (yes, the MGM name is no more), and Epcot makes mid-day rests or swimming (weather permitted) much easier. Just don't bother eatting there.

The Weather this year was certainly an improvement. Though a large overcast and low visibility ceiling in Atlanta resulted in flight delays leading to an Orlando arrival hours after scheduled on Sunday, Monday through Saturday provided the sunniest days we've ever had in a week at WDW. There was an almost negligibly fine mist Saturday morning that dissipated by 10 am, leading to a reasonable warm, partly cloudy day.

The highlight of the trip was, by far, Toy Story Midway Mania. When we first arrived at DHS on Wednesday a mere 20 minutes after the park opened, the standby line was already up to 50 minutes, and Fast Pass distribution had already worked it's way in to the 12 o'clock hour. Obviously we grabbed Fast Passes and ran for the other side of the park where we were treated to walk-ons at Tower of Terror, and a surprisingly long 30 minute wait for Rock'n Roller Coaster. After several turns on each ride, we made our way back to use our Fast Passes for Toy Story.

The standby line was now up to 80 minutes, and Fast Passes were completely distributed for the day. By 11:30. Sorry Soarin', but it was looking pretty bad for your reign as most popular ride at Disney World. After riding, the case was closed.

Toy Story Midway Mania is the most fun I've had on a ride at Disney World. Instead of the slow meandering tour of it's cousin, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom, TSMM zips you along on a quick run through of a number of stationary midway styled games enhanced by 3d glasses. You'll stop for a short time at each game before being whisked quickly along to the next one. Instead of firing visible spectrum lasers in a mess of blinking lights where you can't tell your dot from the guy 10 cars down, the 3D screens provide the virtual projectiles launched from your spring action shooter attached to the front of your car. And you are only competing with the person in your car. It's a fast paced 3D video game ride that appears to appeal to almost EVERYONE. Disney Imagineering really outdid themselves on this ride and with it's addition to DHS really increased the appeal of that park.

Since we only got to ride one time on our main DHS day, we went back Saturday morning for Extra Magic Hour after checking in for our flight at the resort. We were one of the first 50 people in the park and when the rope finally dropped letting us in, I looked back and discovered that nearly the WHOLE crowd that arrived after us was following the leaders back to Toy Story. We walked on for the first ride, and by the time we got off, Fast Pass distribution was again already three hours into the day, and the standby line was up to 60 minutes. I'd call it a hit. We only ended up getting to ride it three times while we were there - my top score was only 195,500, a little shy of the 291,000 posted record of the month. But given such little practice I think I did ok. Most people I watched around us were posting scores under 100,000.

No trip to WDW is complete for us without a lot of pin trading. This November saw the release of what is likely to be the most popular series of Hidden Mickey cast lanyard exclusive pins (pins which you can't buy in the parks, they begin their lives on cast trading lanyards and you have to trade with cast members to obtain them) - each pin in the series represents a letter of the alphabet and a character whose name begins with that letter. All week we were only able to find 6 letters. Six. Hopefully by next year they'll be in better circulation and we'll be able to find the other 20. We also managed to complete a number of sets from last year including the princess eyes, the muppets, the fast passes, the villain crystal balls, and the feet. Out of last year's sets, the ones that we want but are still missing are Figaro (the black cat), Uncle Sam Donald, the Pineapple, and Goofy and Donald driving. From this year's set (October releases, November releases) we still need the Pie, the Tomato, the DDP symbol, and 20 (cry) of the letters (shown on page 2 of the November releases).

It was, as always, a wonderful time. We're pretty sure we're going back again next year, but you never know what the future will bring, especially with the economy in the sad state it's in now. It's always a long year, but it's always worth the wait.

We were pretty bad about getting pictures this year. Truth to tell there wasn't a lot to photograph. It seemed like the Christmas decoration was a little on the light side this year. I did get some decent pics outside of Toy Story, which I should have online sometimes soon.

Timewaster of the day - Hoshi Saga 3

Every stage has it's own mechanics, part of the fun is trying to figure out how exactly it works. The goal is to find the star(s). Please to enjoy. Just be patient, it's a small japanese site, so the loads can be rather slow.

Hoshi Saga 3

Also found Hoshi Saga 1, and Hoshi Saga 2.

Yes, I got a PS3

So yeah, I finally got a PS3, on Wal-mart's free $100 giftcard deal. Not quite as good a deal as the credit card deal when the 5 free blu-ray disc deal was going, but I'm not down with opening new credit cards just for a special deal

So no games yet, mainly got it for a blu-ray player. Now let's see those Supernatural and Battlestar Galactica seasons out on BD already.

If anyone has any games they'd like to play multiplayer online, I'm open to suggestions.

Jack Thompson sinks to new low, still accomplishes nothing

Having failed in both courts of law and the court of public opinion, Jack Thompson has chosen a new tactic. He's telling your mommy.

Thompson wrote a finger-shaking letter to the mother of Rockstar games exec Strauss Zelnick shaming her, among other things, for raising her boy to sell murder simulators to teen boys. No doubt these instructional sessions took the place of Sunday school classes and summer bible camp. This would make Zelnick a victim of his own upbringing, right? Jack, I thought you were a victims' advocate! Well, so long as you are now after the one who's REALLY responsible.

My Current Problems with World of Warcraft

My first MMO was Everquest. It was a pretty hardcore environment in the endgame; character death resulted in experience losses making it possible to lose entire levels, and every raid boss in the game was a timed spawn shared by the entire server. When the Avatar of War was up, it was a race between the top guilds to get to him. You always had to be ready to grab your gear and get to the spawn if you wanted your guild to get the kill.

When World of Warcraft started up, their answer to raid targets sounded like a dream - all encounters would be instanced, there would be no competition for big bosses, every guild/raid group would get it's own shot at it on their own time, when they wanted. The only catch being that once you killed it, you had to wait a set amount of time before going after it again. Sounded PERFECT. No more competition with people who had less of a life than me. And for a time, it was.

Now I'm experiencing the flip side. I've started playing again, and back in a guild consisting of old RL friends, and people from my old guild on Alleria (Aftermath/Tolerance). The guild's time, as it turns out, isn't really my time. The main raids are started at 8pm eastern, and typically last until midnight... on Tuesday and Thursday. I go to bed at 10pm. Gruul/Mag are done on Sunday night, starting at 10pm so those are right out. So needless to say, I'm missing out on most of the good stuff. Tuesday I got in on two boss kills, Thursday I got in on one. Out of 7 killed between the two nights.

I'm not angry at the people in the guild, this was their schedule long before I started playing again. I wish I could be there for more, but I understand that's the schedule that works for them. In Everquest, I played whenever I could, and whatever bosses came up while I was playing I made the most of it. Those that spawned while I wasn't around, I didn't worry about much, because you just can't be around for everything all the time. In WoW... I could be around for everything, but the ability to schedule your raids are actually making me miss a lot.