Of all the endearing, annoying and just plain weird holidays we celebrate, St. Patrick's day is the worst. Why? I'm glad you asked, me. Because it celebrates being Irish. What's so wrong about that? Nothing, per se, but why is it the only one? There are no holidays for Russians, Spaniards, Frenchman, Britons, or Icelandians, that are celebrated in America. Only St. Patty's. Why? I assume because they're "quirky" or "funny" or "unique" but that hardly seems like a good excuse to force everyone into wearing green! It's just ridiculous. Get over yourselves! Not everything said in an Irish accent is funny! Leprechauns are overrated! And alcoholism is more prevalent in your nation than anywhere else in the world! AUGH!
*Disclaimer, I have nothing against Irish people and this is just a rant I felt like doing. No ill will towards anyone.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Rant on WoW, LOTRO and other nerdy nonsense
Last August I quit playing WoW. I'm finally ready to say why.
#1. I didn't have the money
I didn't like spending money to keep playing a game, I wouldn't mind normally, but my other reasons (below, obviously) made it just not worth it.
#2. Leveling from 70-80 is too freakin' hard
Hardcore WoW fans always complain that Blizzard is making WoW too "simple" and "easy". I say bring it on. Patch 2.4 made it much easier leveling from 20-60, and 3.0 made it much easier getting from 60-70. I was able to get 1-70 in under three months. The problem is that the level of experience required to level drastically increases at 70. It's much more fun questing when you're aiming to level at the end of your play session, instead of maybe gaining a bar of experience.
#3. Death Knights ruined group play
I'm surprised there wasn't more of a negative reaction to Death Knights in the game. First of all, everyone and their dog has one. When I was leveling from 60-70 at least 80% of the players I encountered were Death Knights. Second, they're useless in groups. Their DPS is weird, and they can't use shields so they don't make effective tanks, healing is out of the question. Good job, Blizzard, you managed to ruin something great. Introducing a hero class=dumbest decision ever.
#4. Didn't have the time
It's no secret that WoW can eat up lots of time, and I just didn't want that anymore. Especially when I'm paying to inch along towards 80, at which point I wouldn't be able to find groups anyway as a mage, because of all the Death Knights doing DPS. Just not worth it for the admittedly great enjoyment it offers.
Recently, however, I went through a full-on WoW withdrawal. I looked up my old characters and thought about how I would continue the talent trees, looked at various new stuff in the patches and really wanted to play WoW. Instead, I downloaded the 10-day trial for Lord of the Rings Online. WoW never looked so good.
In short, LotRO sucked. The classes are confusing, the design is bland, the quests are pointless and it's an overall boring and mind-numbing experience. So even with the Death Knights, and the insane amount of play-time required to advance, and the upcoming expansion that will only make it even harder to max out, WoW is better than LotRO, and probably everything else on the market.
#1. I didn't have the money
I didn't like spending money to keep playing a game, I wouldn't mind normally, but my other reasons (below, obviously) made it just not worth it.
#2. Leveling from 70-80 is too freakin' hard
Hardcore WoW fans always complain that Blizzard is making WoW too "simple" and "easy". I say bring it on. Patch 2.4 made it much easier leveling from 20-60, and 3.0 made it much easier getting from 60-70. I was able to get 1-70 in under three months. The problem is that the level of experience required to level drastically increases at 70. It's much more fun questing when you're aiming to level at the end of your play session, instead of maybe gaining a bar of experience.
#3. Death Knights ruined group play
I'm surprised there wasn't more of a negative reaction to Death Knights in the game. First of all, everyone and their dog has one. When I was leveling from 60-70 at least 80% of the players I encountered were Death Knights. Second, they're useless in groups. Their DPS is weird, and they can't use shields so they don't make effective tanks, healing is out of the question. Good job, Blizzard, you managed to ruin something great. Introducing a hero class=dumbest decision ever.
#4. Didn't have the time
It's no secret that WoW can eat up lots of time, and I just didn't want that anymore. Especially when I'm paying to inch along towards 80, at which point I wouldn't be able to find groups anyway as a mage, because of all the Death Knights doing DPS. Just not worth it for the admittedly great enjoyment it offers.
Recently, however, I went through a full-on WoW withdrawal. I looked up my old characters and thought about how I would continue the talent trees, looked at various new stuff in the patches and really wanted to play WoW. Instead, I downloaded the 10-day trial for Lord of the Rings Online. WoW never looked so good.
In short, LotRO sucked. The classes are confusing, the design is bland, the quests are pointless and it's an overall boring and mind-numbing experience. So even with the Death Knights, and the insane amount of play-time required to advance, and the upcoming expansion that will only make it even harder to max out, WoW is better than LotRO, and probably everything else on the market.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
MS Paint Movies
MS Paint is a program used all too often to create stuff no one wants to see, ever wanted to see or will ever want to see. These "animations" people make are usually about 7 frames per minute, and they are terrible. Most of them. A few months ago I discovered a YouTube user: JordAnime. He took it to a whole new level, creating smooth and sharp animations that are literally jaw-dropping, and he does them in MS paint. Inspired, I created a couple of animations, and darn, it is a lot of work!
Check him out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Jordanime
And check out my vids here: Blink Animation and 99 frames in 8 seconds
Check him out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Jordanime
And check out my vids here: Blink Animation and 99 frames in 8 seconds
Monday, March 1, 2010
Blame who you know
There are few people in the world more pretentious than those who fancy themselves internet critics, but really know nothing more about film than the average Joe. There are many annoying things about these people, but today I'm going to talk about just one thing.
They blame who they know.
A perfect example is last year's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". The film (using that term loosely) was terrible, barely anything redeeming about it, no argument there, "critics". My problem comes in with who they blamed for this atrocious thing, they blamed Michael Bay. Why? Because he's the director, I guess. But who was really to blame? Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. "Who?" you're probably asking, unwittingly proving my point. They are the writers of Transformers 2, and they should hold a large chunk of the blame. They wrote the script in a very short amount of time (rumors range everywhere from 1 month to 3 days) in order to get it finished before the writers strike. Unfortunately, the studio decided to continue production on the film despite a barely workable script, and what resulted was the terror we witnessed on screen. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci aren't that great anyway, [they wrote the first Transformers, "Star Trek" (2009), "Mission Impossible III" (with JJ Abrams), "The Island" (with Caspian Treadwell-Owen) and "Legend of Zorro" (with Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio)] but in a rush they could hardly be expected to create anything good. So for this reason, the studio is as much to blame as anyone for not stopping production when the script went bad.
Here's how the blame should have been divided
24%-Alex Kurtzman
24%-Roberto Orci
31%-Paramount Pictures
17%-Michael Bay
4%-Industrial Light and Magic
But of course it was really divided like this
97%-Michael Bay
3%-Shia Labouef
Another good example is the 2000 film, "Battlefield Earth". I haven't seen it, but with a 2.3/10 on IMDB, that seems like a good thing. The film was directed by Roger Christian, a relative unknown, so of course he wasn't blamed for the atrociousness of the movie. It was written by Corey Mandell and J. D. Shapiro, but they weren't blamed because no one knows who they are (or any writers for that matter). It was produced by Jonathan D. Crane, and Elli Samaha, but no one knows who they are so they weren't blamed. So who was blamed? John Travolta. He starred in the film and was the third producer, next to Crane and Samaha. Of course, he overacted ridiculously in the picture, but he hardly deserved the 100% of the blame he received. I haven't seen the film, but here's how the blame should have been divided.
Roger Christian-27%
Corey Mandell-18%
J. D. Shapiro-18%
John Travolta-13%
Jonathan D. Crane-10%
Eli Samaha-10%
Warner Bros Pictures-4%
So next time you see a movie, don't just blame the name, blame the person who mucked it up in the first place.
They blame who they know.
A perfect example is last year's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". The film (using that term loosely) was terrible, barely anything redeeming about it, no argument there, "critics". My problem comes in with who they blamed for this atrocious thing, they blamed Michael Bay. Why? Because he's the director, I guess. But who was really to blame? Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. "Who?" you're probably asking, unwittingly proving my point. They are the writers of Transformers 2, and they should hold a large chunk of the blame. They wrote the script in a very short amount of time (rumors range everywhere from 1 month to 3 days) in order to get it finished before the writers strike. Unfortunately, the studio decided to continue production on the film despite a barely workable script, and what resulted was the terror we witnessed on screen. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci aren't that great anyway, [they wrote the first Transformers, "Star Trek" (2009), "Mission Impossible III" (with JJ Abrams), "The Island" (with Caspian Treadwell-Owen) and "Legend of Zorro" (with Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio)] but in a rush they could hardly be expected to create anything good. So for this reason, the studio is as much to blame as anyone for not stopping production when the script went bad.
Here's how the blame should have been divided
24%-Alex Kurtzman
24%-Roberto Orci
31%-Paramount Pictures
17%-Michael Bay
4%-Industrial Light and Magic
But of course it was really divided like this
97%-Michael Bay
3%-Shia Labouef
Another good example is the 2000 film, "Battlefield Earth". I haven't seen it, but with a 2.3/10 on IMDB, that seems like a good thing. The film was directed by Roger Christian, a relative unknown, so of course he wasn't blamed for the atrociousness of the movie. It was written by Corey Mandell and J. D. Shapiro, but they weren't blamed because no one knows who they are (or any writers for that matter). It was produced by Jonathan D. Crane, and Elli Samaha, but no one knows who they are so they weren't blamed. So who was blamed? John Travolta. He starred in the film and was the third producer, next to Crane and Samaha. Of course, he overacted ridiculously in the picture, but he hardly deserved the 100% of the blame he received. I haven't seen the film, but here's how the blame should have been divided.
Roger Christian-27%
Corey Mandell-18%
J. D. Shapiro-18%
John Travolta-13%
Jonathan D. Crane-10%
Eli Samaha-10%
Warner Bros Pictures-4%
So next time you see a movie, don't just blame the name, blame the person who mucked it up in the first place.
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