The Teachings of Steve...

Living the dream...

2009-06-19T05:27:10Z

My PayPal account currently contains a small amount of money paid by a sponsor to Inside Azeroth (which is my podcast, for those of you just tuning in). It's not enough, but with this sponsorship deal we'll be able to cover our hosting costs and the WoW monthly fees for both David and myself with a bit left over.

In short, I'm being paid to do something I love, and something that I'm normally happy to pay to do. It's not like I can quit my job or anything...yet, but it's a big step. Maybe someday we'll indeed be living the dream.

A sad day

2009-06-13T23:12:19Z

Just found out that my uncle Andy is not expected to live throughout the night. I know very little about his ailment, only that he's been very ill for quite some time, and Thursday night his body began shutting down.

Andy was a good uncle. I was never as close to him as I am my uncle Tim or Ridge, but he was always kind and thoughtful. My most vivid memories of the man are at the card table. Even though he was a dreadful bridge player and we savaged him brutally at the table, he played with a smile, just happy to play and enjoy the company of his family.

I'll miss his upbeat manner and his ready laugh, even if we really only saw one another once a year.

Redouble.

The Top 20

2009-05-31T19:15:53Z

I saw this little meme over on cowboy_r's LJ and had to give it a whirl. I apparently need to post more or my life needs to get more interesting. Or both.

Total comments: 1770 Generated by LJ Comment Stats.

1	hamner	501
2	satharn	195
3	cowboy_r	133
4	Anonymous	112
5	lysander_cat	99
6	great_cthulhu	93
7	avilina	93
8	matterntm	64
9	nicodeamos	58
10	brennabe	36
11	raventhourne	33
12	moon_fox	33
13	angel_lord	26
14	falcon_z	26
15	othertim	24
16	ash_blackwell	24
17	taranos	22
18	roxietiel	21
19	la_monday	19
20	grahamphx	17

Violated

2009-02-28T18:45:28Z

Yes, I know it's been six weeks and I'm only resurfacing to be miserable.

Today I woke up to find numerous Facebook comments, text messages, tweets and e-mails saying my characters on World of Warcraft were behaving erratically. Logging on and off, not responding to tells, etc.

I woke up this morning unable to log onto WoW, and the Armory is showing I have numerous characters that have been deleted. Whoever it was that violated my account also completely assraped the guild bank I'm in charge of...yes, that would be the podcast guild. The work and generous donations of 150 characters gone in sixty seconds.

Armory is at least showing my main still exists and his equipment is intact - for now. I have no idea how long that will last, or even if that's still the case. Have I mentioned that Blizzard's customer support line is closed on weekends? Yes...the best I can do is send in an e-mail and be pissed off.

I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, motherfucker.

Step 3

2009-01-13T03:27:17Z

3. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mazzanoble

I'll confess I actually got this book for my wife. I don't think she's ever quite gotten my fascination with RPGs, which is okay - I've never quite gotten her fascination with cashmere. It feels so weird! She started reading it, which is to say I think she looked at the cover and the table of contents.

I really enjoyed reading about Shelly's descent into D&D, the birth of Astrid (her elven sorceress) and her early adventures with her group at WotC. I think it'd be neat if she did a 4th edition version sometime - I'd read it.

On another note, thank you nicodemos for the kind belated Christmas gift! It's perfect! The right level range and everything. Looking forward to DM'ing that one in the near future.

The 50 Book Road

2009-01-06T13:43:33Z

I guess I better get started.

1) Straight Silver by Dan Abnett

2) Sabaat Martyr by Dan Abnett

I've been on a Warhammer 40k kick lately. I've never played the miniatures game, but I've spent many hours playing the PC real-time strategy game Dawn of War. It's really quite a rich environment for fiction, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that while these are books about a very grisly series of military campaigns, there's a lot more going on than death and las-blasts.

I put together my new office chair last night with a little help from my lovely wife. While it's a little higher than I'm used to, it's still a hell of a lot more comfortable than the folding chair I was using.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-01T21:12:47Z

(That should be read wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Like the noise one would make sledding down a huge hill...you know, like if we had snow in Tucson.)

Our big family gift this year was a Nintendo Wii. So far, the only game we have is Wii Sports, and I'm telling you that the doubles team of myself and darth_riley is formidable indeed. I really want to get Mario Kart (oh my mistress...how I have missed you so...), but I'd like to get something else as well. Maybe Star Wars: The Force Unleashed? Anyone else have any suggestions?

Speaking of which, I have to get it off my chest. I love the animated series The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. I can't help it. I dig the animation, I like the stories, and the characters built around the ones we know are all interesting and wonderfully Star Wars-y. I may have been disappointed in the prequel trilogy, but The Clone Wars really has reignited my passion for the Lucasverse. Oooh! Anyone play the Lego Star Wars game for Wii? That would be fun.

Dinner with the extended family tonight. It's a little sad that I'd rather stay home, play some Wii or WoW (heh...that sounds funny) or watch the rest of the second season of How I Met Your Mother, but the spawn knows presents await her at my folks' place, and she will not be denied.

Four weeks???

2008-12-31T14:07:51Z

Wow, been a while since I've had much to say, so I'll hit the high notes:

darth_riley finished her first semester of 1st grade. Like most kids, she doesn't care for school and would rather play Barbies, kick around the soccer ball, ride bikes or collect vanity pets on her fire mage.

I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful wife and family, and while we still have some unpacking and settling in to do, the house we moved into really feels like home.

sundaygames is deep in a 4th edition D&D game. There was a time just four months ago when I would've sworn this would never come to pass; I'm glad I was wrong. My friends at that gaming group are good folks, and I look forward to seeing them every week. DragonBorn P0rn, LLC 4 Life!

My Friday night gaming group remains the most challenging (and occasionally frustrating) game I've played. It requires high-level thinking, good role-playing, and the ability to make snap combat decisions on your feet. I really enjoy it, and I'm blessed with a good group...if only I could get them to play 4th edition!

My podcast just recorded it's 31st episode. We're planning to start our own guild (parallel guilds - one EU and one US) soon. I always thought we'd do a good show, but I never imagined we'd draw such a fantastic community. I got 'recognized' while playing two nights ago - that's both gratifying and terrifying. :) Speaking of which, I'm lucky to have friends both near and far with whom to enjoy my ~~addiction~~ favorite pastime. From just across town to across the world in England and Australia, it's nice to know I have people to show me around when I go on my world tour...someday.

Left 4 Dead is downright awesome. I need more friends to play it with online.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Better Late Than Never

2008-11-29T17:40:16Z

If you're reading this before about noon MST (2pm on the East Coast, 11am on the West), PLEASE shoot off a short e-mail to thegrindpodcast@gmail.com.

In the body of the e-mail say something like:

Luke,

Go get your epic flying mount! N00b!

Or some variation of the above...as long as it calls for him to get his epic flying mount it's good. If you're a WoW player, maybe include your character details and server name?

Only 90 minutes to go!

ETA: We did it! A total of 55 e-mails and now Luke has to drop everything and go get his epic flier. Woohoo! Thanks for helping out.

Steve 1, Locusts 0 FT

2008-11-23T18:18:13Z

I finished Gears of War 2 yesterday, and while I have long maintained that the game is truly legendary, I'm a little let down by the ending battle. The last fight against RAAM in Gears of War was epic. You had to employ a lot of strategy, know when to just suppress him and know when to pour on the DPS. Sometimes you had to run, sometimes you had to dodge by him, and sometimes you had to have the intestinal fortitude to stand your ground. It was challenging and blissfully rewarding.

Without revealing any spoilers, this battle was just kind of meh. The enemy was something completely new and freaky, but the tactics required were very straightforward and the battle was quite short. Visually amazing, but still not entirely fulfilling.

Still, Gears of War 2 is a truly legendary game, well deserving of the 9s and 9.5s it earned, and I'll be playing through the campaign mode again both on a higher difficulty and in co-op with lysander_cat (I call Marcus!). I'm also really looking forward to playing Horde mode online...four players square off against wave after wave of increasingly difficult groups of locust troops. I've heard the first wave is about a half-dozen wretches and a handful of troops, whereas the higher waves consist of brumaks, the new monk-type guys and dozens of other soldiers. Sounds delicious to me.

26th episode of our show is in the can and should be released sometime today. Woohoo!

Left 4 Dead

2008-11-21T03:51:28Z

The other Xbox 360 game that is luring me from Northrend is the wonderfully kickass zombie apocalypse title Left 4 Dead. The single player isn't bad, but this game becomes one of the greats when you get online with a couple folks. I played with three people I didn't even know a few hours ago, and everyone was cool, we had a few laughs, killed a shitload of zombies, and ran around in panic. Good times.

So between Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead, I might not get in as much WoW time as I'd expected.

(...and if you're on Xbox Live, thou shalt friend me! Congamer! I thirst for multiplayer Gears!)

Gears 2

2008-11-20T14:17:08Z

BTW, I haven't posted it yet, but Gears of War 2 is awesome.

I'm looking for some multi-player buddies...some of the new co-op options look tasty. If you're up for some co-op MP sometime, my gamertag is Congamer. Friend me! 8)

World of Warcraft Update

2008-11-20T14:14:30Z

Yes, I know, I said I was going to keep my WoW-related news in another blog, but I feel like spreading the news in my LJ.

Even if you barely know what the acronym WoW represents, you probably know the second expansion to the game, Wrath of the Lich King, rolled out on the 13th. As expansions go, I'm not finding it as game-changing, nor is the content really all that different. The Burning Crusade was a pretty radical shift with the Space Goats and Blood Elves, the faction-specific classes opening up, and the new continent being so dramatically different than Azeroth. However, WotLK is still an awesome expansion. Northrend is a fascinating place to explore with some great quests, pretty scenery, and sentient walruses. How could you not love sentient walrus-people?

I won't go too far into the Death Knight hero class other than to say the opening storyline and accompanying quests are far and away the best in the game. And that DKs are overpowered. I'm sure the nerf bat is a'comin'.

My Blood Elf Paladin, Rhodes, made 72 pretty easily. Moon Guard was packed for a few days, but the queues have slowed down a bit, and quest competition isn't as fierce. My Dwarf Hunter has just gotten to Northrend, tamed a new pet (a rhino named Sherman), and acquired a...a...a...BOW!!! I have always held that bows are for elves and true badasses packed heat, but the gun I was using is so far outclassed by this bow, and I just can't afford a new one right now. Ah well.

One complaint I have about the Aggramar server (the home of my dwarf), is the queues are freaking ungodly. When I tried to get on after dinner last night (around 7pm MST), I waited in queue for better than 20 minutes. On Moon Guard (where my paladin roams), I doubt I would've waited at all. Point to the RP server there.

My WoW-themed podcast, The Grind, recorded its 25th episode a few weeks back. I remember when we started in May I thought this would be an interesting learning experience and good practice for when I started doing this for real. Somewhere along the line, my learning experience grew into a pretty damn fine show. I'm proud of it.

All done!

Kilt Up!

2008-11-01T01:14:17Z

Okay, I'm fixing to costume up for this party I'm going to tonight, but what's more notable is the sick amount of money we just spent at Chivalry Sports in Tucson. I meant to go in and out with a snappy little white puffy shirt, and wound up leaving with a snappy white puffy shirt annnnnnnd a full belly-dancing costume.

Not for me, for roxietiel.

I was warned that if I let my girls go into the store that I wouldn't be leaving with just the shirt. I should've heeded the warning.

Holy kee-rist. The woman who helped my wife and daughter had the rack the envy of most silicon-enhanced porn stars. Couple that with a bodice and a dress that showed off the assets and it made spending six games on what amounts to spiffy Halloween costumes a little more palatable.

And if any of you women are reading beneath this cut, you were warned! AVERT!

Gotta go kilt up!

The Countdown...

2008-10-28T14:04:38Z

It occurred to me we are a scant 16 days from the release of Wrath of the Lich King. w00t! I dinged 70 with my blood elf paladin just in time!

(I will post something more meaningful in the near future - promise!)

...

I have no idea if this is going to work. I get the feeling LJ is pretty finicky about what you can and cannot embed in a post. Nonetheless, here we go!

ETA: Bah. Well, it actually worked, but the countdown timer failed. Curses!

Touchdown

2008-10-16T00:55:36Z

Amongst surly movers, injured shoulders, valiant men (and women)-at-arms and my mad U-Haul driving skillz, it is done.

Well...almost. There's still some small shit to move, but for the most part, we're out. Since Saturday, the clan has been putting their feet up at the new place on La Cienega. :)

It was a gigantic pain, but the worst is certainly over. Today Monsieur Comcast came over and hooked us up with cable, internet, phones, etc. I've downloaded updates for all my important mods and am in the process of updating WoW...14% through and slow going. I'd be happy for it to be done before 8pm.

In other news, I go in to have my shoulder examined again tomorrow. This should be the big therapy or surgery appointment - I'll keep y'all posted.

16%...

The best part of this whole thing being over is I can get back to my games! How I have missed my Friday and Sunday groups! (Well...it's been like one week for sundaygames, but I'm jonesing to run more 4th ed.) And back to my podcast! Luke, Amanda and David did a good job without me, but I have missed two landmark shows at 20 and 21.

30%...moving right along...

And finally, if you haven't reserved Wrath of the Lich King yet and are interested in a Midnight release party, Gamestop at Grant/Swan is having one, and the guys there are very cool. Costume contests, drawings, free food/drink, and, most importantly, WotLK at midnight.

47%! w00h00! I could be in by 6!

The Big Move

2008-10-10T14:23:21Z

I can barely utter these words, but this three-day weekend is going to blow. The gods will, I hope, forgive me given the circumstances.

My family's barely taken a bite out of the requisite packing, meaning we'll spend nearly every waking moment doing just that tonight and tomorrow, and finally Sunday the movers come and haul everything over. I suppose Monday might be alright, but the new house isn't quite 100% ready to roll, meaning it's without phone, cable, or internet.

I'd complain more about this, but I gotta go to work. At least lunch will be good Tucson ~~Eat~~ Meet Yourself always has lots of tasty cuisine to sample.

...but it's Friday!

2008-09-26T13:48:51Z

Oy.

The fledgling guild of which I'm a founding member only has a roster of four people, and we had our first bout of guild drama last night, and I took a fall resulting in a severely jacked up left shoulder, but it's Friday...nothing can be all bad. :)

Final walk-through on our house was last night. All is well. We're gonna have the keys early next week and packing has commenced. I hate packing. I hate moving. It's such an immense hassle. I know once it's all said and done it'll be great, but until then it's just a giant pain in the ass.

So many good games are coming out over the next two months. I'm having to set up a priority list. Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 and Fable 2 and Gears of War 2...not to mention Wrath of the Lich King in November. Last year was just Bioshock and then my beloved Mass Effect.

...but it's Friday - nothing can be all bad. :) Woohoo!

Memeness

2008-09-18T13:46:39Z

44 seconds

Not even a freaking minute. What a loser I am!

Audio on Grind 17 sucked. :( We tried Powergramo to record our Skype conversation instead of Garage Band and the audio levels came out terribly wonky. I sounded like I was shouting and Luke was barely audible. Powergramo lets you record different people in different channels, which is nice, but requires quite a bit more fine-tuning to level the audio. We'll probably have to tinker with it a bit for 18.

The content was good though. The show was a tiny bit more politically incorrect than usual, and Luke did a little more 'steering' than normal, but I think it sparked some good conversation while reporting all the news that's fit to cast in our World of Warcraft.

Also, my first game review (for Arkham Horror) was posted in the Heroes & Villains newsletter. I get my first store credit slip on the 30th. A paid writing gig! Very exciting. Reviews of World of Warcraft: the Board Game, the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, Diplomacy and Shadows Over Camelot are coming down the pike.

Pew! Pew!

2008-09-14T19:03:42Z

Best Penny Arcade comic I've read in ages:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/12/

The 4th Element

2008-09-13T02:28:19Z

Better late than never...

D&D 4th Edition came out in June, and I've read no end of bad reviews. The thing is, most of these reviews have a number of commonalities:

The reviewers always cite their age, their first D&D experience (invariably the first edition red box), their lifelong addiction to RPGs, the sheer volume of cash spent on RPG books, and the fact that they walked barefoot in the snow to school. Uphill. BOTH WAYS!

They all maintain 4th edition is written to appeal to new (and, purportedly, younger) gamers. This, obviously, makes it crap.

All of them maintain 4th edition is actually an MMORPG crammed into a series of hardback books and governed by dice.

And none of them recognize the awesomeness of my podcast. Fuckers.

Anyway, I'm here to say that I, too, had my first D&D experience with the original red box. My stalwart band included my mother and father (their first and only experience with D&D) and my cousin Pat. They hated it, I still game twice a week. I'd say that gives me the same cred these yokels have.

Here's a news flash. 4th Edition does a lot to attract new gamers. I'm not going to go into great length, but I love the way characters are handled. I love that 1st level mages aren't magic missile-shield-out and 1st level clerics aren't just healbots. Fighters don't just attack, they charge or sweep or cleave. It's awesome. Skills don't require a crapload of accounting, and they've been restructured well. Characters are more colorful and just more fun. Combat takes all the good stuff from 3.5 and fixes all the stuff that had me pulling my hair out. Fast, fun, and easy to GM.

And you know what? It's okay that new gamers are being pulled into the game. It's good that teenagers are being lured back into the game. Eventually we'll be playing from our wheelchairs, and without new blood taking over, D&D and all pen and paper games will become relics of the past.

But is it really just World of D&D-craft? Well...maybe. They've certainly taken pages from WoW and other similar games. Even the art is somewhat similar. I really don't think that's all bad. MMORPGs still require a lot of tactical thought and cooperation, and 4th edition really rewards that. It's hardly button-mashing, but you can see the influence there. Again, I say, so what? The role-playing element is as robust as ever, and new mechanics aren't going to change that. Just because my wizard has to make a to-hit roll for his magic missiles doesn't change the fact that Calo Tosken is a deep character with complex relationships with both PCs and NPCs.

And I realize that my podcast rocks it down to Chinatown.

If you're looking for a more in-depth review that echoes my thoughts, I'd recommend Massawyrm's review on AICN. If you're looking for a more in-depth review from someone who disagrees with me...well, you won't have to look far. :(

11 weeks???

2008-09-11T13:59:42Z

I can't believe I haven't spoken up in 11 weeks. It's not because life hasn't been interesting, I've just been...~~lazy and/or playing World of Warcraft~~ horribly busy with life. I'll hit the high notes.

- darth_riley started 1st grade. She seems to like it okay, except for the homework, which she hates. The concept of this 'homework' thing lasting for the next 15 years is daunting for her.

- Spore was finally released! While it hasn't really lived up to the hype (and honestly, how could it?), I'm really enjoying it. The galaxy trembles at the evolution of the Stevarians.

- New TV is here! Yay! Fringe is very neat, and I'm looking forward to ~~True Lies~~ My Own Worst Enemy.

- I have passed judgment on D&D 4th edition, and will discuss my feelings on it in a future post. Suffice it to say I think all the 'old school' naysayers who preface everything with, "I've been playing D&D since the paleolithic era when the rule tablets were inscribed on dinosaur hide..." need to pull the stick out.

- Work still bites, but I got a side gig writing reviews of role-playing and board games for a local comic book/game store. Granted, it only pays store credit, but it's my first paid writing job. I'm pretty excited about it.

- My podcast regularly pulls 1,000 downloads. We have had a few bumps in the road over the past month, but should be back to recording Saturday. You can sign up for the RSS feed, find us on iTunes or check out some older episodes at thegrindpodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you.

- I have a second toon rapidly approaching 70th level, this time a blood elf paladin named Rhodes. Protection spec FTW!

- I am running a truly kickass World War Z campaign for sundaygames. We started Dead Rising style in a shopping mall in a fictitious city, the characters were made to represent 'normal' people. They have no outstanding stats and some of them can't even fire a gun or swing a bat very well. After escaping the mall (and losing one of their number), they hit the road, having to deal with looters, crazy survivalists, the mad spread of the 'disease' and a government bent on containing the situation by any means possible. It's a blast. We'll probably only go a few more weeks before testing the waters of 4th edition D&D, but I'll miss this game and hope we come back to it.

- We bought a house! That's right. As of September 29, we'll be the new owners of 2739 N. La Cienega. If you don't quite know where that is (and I didn't until roxietiel dragged me there), it's on the east side of town near the intersection of Tanque Verde and Dos Hombres. Dos Hombres really isn't a major thoroughfare, so you could think of it as being near'ish to Wrightstown/Pantano or Tanque Verde/Sabino Canyon...take your pick. :) We've got some work to do prior to moving in (some tiling, painting darth_riley's room, a little kitchen work), but we expect to be moving there before the end of October. If only they got Cox there...Comcast blows ass.

- My twitter is http://twitter.com/congamer

Gotta go wake up the ladies. :)

AOE Grinding = The shiznit

2008-06-29T18:10:38Z

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to harp on World of Warcraft, that I was setting up a separate journal for it, blah blah blah, but this was just too good...

Paladin AOE Grinding is quite possibly the most fun I've had in combat in WoW. Forget big money crits, cool pets, frustrating utility spells or slipping a knife between an opponents ribs - AOE Grinding is, as the kids say, the frakking shiznit.

Through a combination of Blessing of Sanctuary, Improved Righteous Fury, and Seal of Light, I can take on 4-5 mobs of a comparable level, defeat them all and come out of it with 3/4 of my starting Health or better. In fact, it's easier to fight a group of mobs than it is just one! I'm loving this!

My paladin's only 34th - here's a little YouTube flick of some bloke doing this at 42nd. A little long'ish, but it's something to see (plus the music in it is truly kickass).

A subtle reminder...

2008-06-29T17:59:00Z

The RSS feed of my mini-podcasts at constantgamer.com can be found at...

congamer

Ta daaa!