I updated my World of Warcraft character stats to reflect that my main priest is level 85.
Dec 132010
Resurrection attempt of FF14′s lack of direction means the old is out and the new blasts into place.
Dec 102010
Todays FFIV newsletter spam made me laugh. I played FF14 for about 2 hours after it was hot off the press. In its state, I cannot see how anyone can turn the game around to make it any better. Basic gameplay mechanics are wrong as well as the lack of a tutorial of any sort. Which ends up with you killing one rabbit, then make a shot at another and die… for hours.
Screw that. I understand that FF14 “just came out” and it does not have the development time of 6 years behind them like World of Warcraft does, but for the love of all things gaming: get the basics right!
Official juice is at the link below while I have quoted and gave some rant-like responses.
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=c499e4c5df4f3f0fde1fb47a28574cb9c3991c9f
While more than two months have passed since the official launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies.
At least they are sorry. I am sorry, also, that I paid money for the game. I looked on the box to confirm publisher at least 10 times during the one hour long install process that failed to complete (update failed to apply at 98%), followed by another hour uninstalling the game, just to try and install it over again. I did not include this idle time in my “total game time played” as it would greatly inflate what should have been “fun” time and instead it was WTF time. “Square Enix” I kept telling myself, “it will be a good game.”
After thorough deliberation on how to meet those expectations, it was decided that the most viable step was to approach improvements under new leadership and with a restructured team.
Translation: Management will be in the unemployment line as of yesterday.
We realize time is of the essence and are fully determined to provide our customers with quality service. It is because of this that we ask our customers to be patient until we are able to confidently present them with a concrete plan outlining FINAL FANTASY XIV’s new direction. The free trial period will be extended until that time.
Oh … just take your time, like you should have done before it ever hit the shelves. Pushing out crap for a Holiday drsdpm release does not mean you get a lot of people behind you or pull people away when the rival Blizzard kicked out an oustanding sequel to their MMO with little or no issues. That is what time affords you. I can play for free? If I could decipher the damn account management website, I would be all up for that.
Losts more in the release, but I just wanted a few cuts to comment on.
Now, time to figure out how to log back into the game, I may look at the pretty pictures once again, since that is the only thing going for it.
Update: After reinstall, large patches and a successful account reactivation (I canned it 3 days after original release), I logged back into the game, just to be greeted with downtime due to “maintenance”. As a side note, account expires January 3, 2011… I assume that it will be extended at that time.
Nov 262010
The end of an expansion, namely World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King usually means that I should update my character listing. What are the totals?
Total Characters at level cap (80) = 13 (10 Horde, 3 Alliance)
Total time /played across all characters = 550 days, 14 hours, 58 minutes, 51 seconds
Total time /played @ level cap across all characters = 105 days, 14 hours, 57 minutes, 5 seconds
Oct 252010
I have used multiple monitors for as long as the option was available on add in graphics cards. As such, I have grown to not only enjoy, but really depend on information displayed in such a manor. However, for many years, Flash Video player has alluded my ultimate support because of one (big) issue for me: Full screen video. Sure, you can drag a browser window to the second monitor and hit “full screen” and it will display as such, but after clicking back to another window on the main display, the player shrinks back down. That is a big bummer.
Back in the mid 80′s when MTV actually played music videos, it was my main source of entertainment and I really want that back, but with the ability to “watch what I want, when I want”. I watched videos for a few years with VH1′s “VSPOT”, even though a lot of favorites deletion issues after new versions are released and random playback failure, but what made me bail from them was their seemingly bizarre method of censorship. I did not turn 38 to listen to missing lyrics. Seriously. So after several months of ignoring online video playing music, I decided to give YouTube a shot.
YouTube, especially videos posted by “VEVO”, are of high quality and often times HD… but, what is the point of HD when, yet again, the video does not stay full screen while doing “anything” else.
Solution? Modify a Flash DLL. What? Yeah, I did a Google search and of course, many people are requesting this same feature. Even though the option is not available in GUI, the DLL can be modified using a hex editor and changing only two values.
Now, this method is not for the feint of heart, however, if you do a couple of things before hand, you will have as much success as I did:
- Back up the file before modifying it, so in case it does not work, you can delete the broken one and rename your file back and you are good to go. Best way is just to right click the file and select “copy”, then “paste” it back into the same directory. This will create the file name with “Copy of” tagged in front of it.
- Hex editors are powerful tools and should be used with care.
- After Chrome updates itself with a new version or re-installation of any kind, it is possible that you will have to redo the process to get full screen capabilities back.
With that said, I am happy to report that the directions linked above worked perfectly well using Chrome 7.0.517.41. Now, I can watch my VEVO music videos while at the same time, do… well… anything else.
Hey Google… since you bundle your own Flash player anyway, can you give us this option as well in GUI? Thanks… Love BV…
Enjoy!
Oct 122010
World of Warcraft Patch 4.0.1 was released today. Great, now I get to relearn playing the game that I have used for six years all over again. Thankfully, the changes that Blizzard makes are all in a positive direction and always make the game better.
This also means that most, if not all, addons/modifications to the UI are magically invalid. Thankfully, I will be updating my mod list with the latest addons that I use as well as their current compatibility with the latest WoW version. With about 50% of my addons are already done, and I will continue to update it throughout the coming days.
Oct 092010
If you were thinking of purchasing this game, please do yourself a favor and avoid the temptation. It is such an epic failure that I find it hard to put into words just how much I hate this game. I may put forth the effort in making a review, but it is doubtful that I will waste any more time then I already have on this game.
Oct 042010
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Release Date Set at December 7, 2010, according to the Official Press Release.
Looks like I will have to take a week vacation, starting at midnight that morning. 
Mar 022010
Updated my World of Warcraft Character listing for my Warrior hitting 80. All Horde characters (ten) are now capped at 80.
Jan 052010
Updated my World of Warcraft Character listing and the addon listing.
Dec 102009
Updated my World of Warcraft Character listing for my Druid hitting 80.