So a college buddy of mine is working on a new site, EasyAutoSales.com. While the color combination tends to make my eyes hurt, it looks like a useful tool if you're looking for used cars or want to sell yours. They've apparently got something like a million car listings already.
Check it out.
Just wanted to post a friendly little tip for anyone who might be having problems getting their Wii to talk to their wireless network.
I recently got FiOS, which meant a new wireless router.
I also recently got Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which gave me a reason to fire up my Wii.
I was apparently able to get my Wii to find and connect to my 802.11g network with 64-bit WEP encryption, however any network operations (such as downloading a firmware update or connecting to a game's Internet server) were failing.
I went into my wireless router's settings, and saw that the channel (1-11) was set to "Automatic".
I changed the channel setting to "11".
I went through the Wii's setup procedure again, and it worked flawlessly.
So, bottom line: Much like Nigel's amplifiers, the Wiis goe to eleven.
(Is that the plural of Wii? Wiis?)
Finally took the plunge and picked up an Xbox 360 yesterday. I figured that since they've dropped the price by $50 and updated the motherboard with HDMI and better cooling, now would be a good time. Plus, there's that whole Halo 3 thing that I'm looking forward to.
I've got to say, I'm pretty impressed with what Xbox Live has become, especially the integration -- every application is now required to be Live aware. Now that Live is implemented at every level of the console's operation, it's much simpler to find a friend who's online and send an invite to play a game. Nintendo also needs to take note of how Xbox Live Arcade works, as the ability to download demos before dropping cash on a new game is certainly a welcome feature.
I've posted my Gamer Card before, but I figured now'd be a good time to link to it again:
We've submitted our entry into the Heinz Top This TV Challenge! You can view our entry from the contest website at YouTube. Hopefully we'll be selected as one of the 15 finalists, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
Since StarCraft II was recently announced, and all of Korea essentially went berserk with anticipation, I decided to give the original StarCraft another shot. I've never been much of a fan of Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games in the past, but perhaps my tastes had changed over the years.
Nope. Turns out I still hate them.
Being the analytical type that I am, I gave it a bit of thought. I know I enjoy the strategy of it, especially considering how much I enjoy playing D&D. I know that it's not the game in particular, as I can appreciate the balance and the amount of design that went into StarCraft. The game makes sense to me, it's not a lack of understanding what I need to do or why I lose.
But in thinking about all of this, I realized that there's a common thread among the genres of games that I usually despise, and it all comes down to one thing, now immortalized as my First Law of Gaming:
Brown's 1st Law of Gaming:
The amount of time invested is directly proportional to how pissed off I am when I lose.
What it all boils down to is that I essentially hate games where my time can be completely wasted by a defeat. In most of the games I enjoy, say RPGs or Action/Adventure games, the player's advancement is broken down into small chunks; stages or levels in the case of Action games, or character advancement with Experience Points in the case of RPGs. If the player "dies" -- the amount of time lost is only what you put in since the last save point, usually 10-15 minutes at the most.
Take Super Mario Bros., for example. Let's say it takes 20 minutes to get to Level 8-4, Bowser's Castle. If I get to the end of the level and die while battling with Bowser, what happens? I start level 8-4 over again, and have lost, what, maybe 5-10 minutes tops? No big deal, I just go through the level again.
But, if I spend an hour playing a game of StarCraft, what happens? GAME OVER, MAN! That's it. Defeat is absolute. All of the time I spent collecting minerals, vespine gas, building units, researching upgrades, amassing an army, exploring the map... wasted. All of that time spent advancing now means nothing. I can't start over again from a point 45 minutes into the battle.
The issue holds for most sports games, like Football, Baseball, and Hockey. Once I've lost a game, that 80-yard touchdown in the first quarter doesn't matter much.
Basically, I've found that I hate having achievements invalidated, and I can't stand the thought of having to go through another hour of hassle just to get back to where I was. In moments like that, I usually end up shutting the game off, and, more often than not, I usually won't play it ever again.
So, in conclusion, what this all really means is that I'm a complete nerd and have way too much time to contemplate things like this.
So last night I was having this wonderful dream about being on vacation with my beautiful wife... when all of a sudden William Shatner kicked us out of our hotel room so he could get someone a good deal through Priceline. When I woke up, I was concerned that advertisers had finally figured out how to beam commercials into our dreams like in that one episode of Futurama.
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