Check it out! I’m still alive, and so is this website!

I know I said I wasn’t going to whine about this, but I am. Call me….well don’t call me anything, it’s rude.

After arriving in Northrend and ascending to lvl 71, I became very alarmed when, after completing quests for peasants and wayward seal-people (who seem to be under siege from the same pirate apparitions that plagued Scooby Doo for so long), I was handed very nice gear. Ridiculous in fact. Most of it blue, one or two green, all superior to my current adornments.

I should be happy, I know. After all, it’s an upgrade! For whatever reason I am unable or unwilling to grasp that concept. As someone who struggled with 39 other people to solve the riddles of BWL and Nax, wipe after wipe, for fortune and glory and all things epically purple and shiny, I can’t quite bring myself to put on this new gear. I know it’s better, but I can’t put it on.

Time for the obligatory metaphor to make my case. Let’s say that you were a hard working, self made person of intrigue and power in the early 1970’s, and you had a real thing for racing cars. At the time there was one car in particular that you coveted, for sake of our tale lets say it was a 1970 Ferrari 246 GT Dino. It was the best of it’s time in power, performance, style. It was also the hardest to obtain. You got it, you tuned it, acquired every supporting part and accessory available to make it the best it could be. And it was the best. You raced it, and you won. A lot.

As time went on, for whatever reason, you lost interest in cars. You keep your prize, but covered and in storage. Now, in present day, you suddenly find your passion for racing renewed. You pull the cover off, hop in and head out to the track. People still stare, still admire, but for an entirely different reason: Nostalgia. Or, in the case of the traipsing ninny in Episode 1, utter confusion. “I bet that was fast” they remark, smiling with the confidence that while they could never have attained such a car in it’s time, they car they have now is in most ways superior and thus it doesn’t matter.

After some qualifying races you realize that your car is still fast and worthy of competing, just not at the highest levels. Being the enthusiast that you are, the time for upgrading is at hand. That’s when the screaming starts.

You see an impressive machine, say a Lancer EVO. It is faster than your car, better performing in nearly every way, and at 1/5 the price to attain. You can just have it. But you don’t want it. You drove a Ferrari damnit, and even though you may not be able to pick up a new 458 Italia right now, you know that if you work hard enough you can get there.

I want my Ferrari, and I’m not ashamed to say so. So instead of racing an EVO until I have the chance to join the elite ranks once again, I will stay in my Dino. Sure I’m not going to get there as fast or win as consistently, but hey: I’ll look good doing it.

A bunch of us here make and work on games as well as playing them. One of the sites I really like is Lost Garden - it showcases many new games made from art and code the main author provides. A recent article has free tilesets and how to bootstrap your art needs. And if I can attest to the one thing that after the engine is done - is the overwhelming amount of art and variety of art expected in a game. Having made over 5000+ icons for Lord of the Rings Online - and over 1000 animation sets for Hillbilly Whack! art creation and getting it all done is just killer.

Anyways - check out Lost Garden first and then find yourself lost in the thoughts of people making games.

At Lost Garden

So… after leaving this poor blog to rot for several months here, I have decided to redouble my efforts on this puppy.

I have been working at a start-up called Guild Cafe, and while it has certainly been taking up more than its fair share of work, it has both gotten me closer to the game industry, and also demonstrated to me the need for me to have a place to rant about whatever, but that is separate from my personal (family) blog.

So.. with that (and a google ad check to remind me its actually worth it…cuz it will pay its server fees) monkeygames.org LIVES again!!!!

I have setup the blog with Flock (the most conducive web browser to blogging around, and so I have no reason to be lazy and leave my poor monkeygames to die.

With that, I thank you for visiting, especially after such a long long long haitus. I hope to serve you well out there in blogland. And if you wish to contact me, you can email me at russell at monkeygames d o t org.

p.s.
You may also note that the forums have been nuked, sadly this is what happens when you don’t spend time and energy protecting it from spammers.

This makes my panties a bit wet gentlemen…wet…

Warning.. this google video is potty mouth central... and very funny.

When WOW meets the Simpsons.. its always good.

Playing video games can satisfy deep psychological needs and, at least in the short term, improve people’s well-being, new research shows.

The more a game fulfilled a player’s sense of independence, achievement and connectedness to others, the more likely he or she was to keep playing, Dr. Scott Rigby of Immersyve, a Florida-based virtual environment think tank, and colleagues from the University of Rochester in New York found. And the more fully a player’s needs were satisfied, the better he felt after playing.

Read the truth we’ve always known at Yahoo News.

Today marked the launch of the demo version of Wii’s Internet Channel. The channel is essentially a version of the Opera Browser, that runs on the wii. I tried to make a post to monkeygames from the wii, but about half way through my message, the console froze up. RUH ROH. Maybe long typing entries are a bug on the current version. Ahh well. Its clearly not meant for a long typing session anyway.

Of note:
1) They seem to have added a very nice word complete functionality to at least the entries of the Browser, but possibly to all entry fields on the console (that would rock).
2) The browser itself handles the mismatch in resolution and screen size rather well. You can zoom in and out of a page, scroll with the wiimote, and even change the viewpoint to be more like a mobile device (this messes up the page good, but makes the text nice and big.
3) As for the browser’s capabilities, Gmail worked, google maps did not, You Tube looked awesome, and Flash movies play fantastic.
4) The loading was plenty fast.
5) The favorites page is slow to load, but once in, it is very intuitive with a shot of the front page.
6) One annoying thing, is you have to jump back to the home to enter a new web address. They should have a button jsut open the URL bar.

All in all, considering I would probably just head upstairs to use the internet on a more serious task, it does a nice job for a quick trip to IMDB to settle a bet, CNN for the news, YouTube for some fun browsing, or to Gmail to send a quick note or read mail. While the demo version is free and available today, I will deffinitely buy the full version once its released.

In other news, a couple of nights ago, Nintendo also put their Forecast channel live.

It was simple to setup, and now I can get the weather from my Wii. Sort of useful, deffinitely well presented. Their globe feature is pretty cool, as you can spin the globe and check out the weather from your home town, to the South Pole. It was cool, but after Google Earth, I’m dreaming of THAT on the wii at all times. THAT would be something amazing. At any rate, check out the You Tube below for a walkthrough of it. (make sure to fast forward the part where the user is downloading the app).

This is simply money.