Well, it appears that I'm slightly better at some games than I first supposed. Met up with some pals last night who were playing the new MOBA game Overwatch. I'd heard of it but hadn't given it too much attention. Of course, these three were pretty good at it and were eager to get me into the craze. They set up another computer for me and soon I was in cahoots with one of my pals. Of course, the first character I tried playing as was the cowboy. Oh don't give me that look. He hat a frontiersman hat, poncho and a revolver. How could I not pick him?
Now, I know next to nothing about this game. I'm getting used to the controls and know only how to move and shoot, and what's more I'm playing on my friend's account who is a high level and I'm being set against players of equal skill, not a bunch of noobs like myself. I'm fully expecting to be a complete clown and earn laughs of derision from my companions.
Lo and behold, I start playing with remarkable skill. In my very first minute of combat I get two kills and lay down some deadly fire on all who show themselves. One of my friends gaped in astonishment as I outlived most other players on my team and was an active force that created quite a few problems for our opponents. I thought I was only okay, but apparently I did quite well.
So my game comrade decides we should have a duel in a custom match, just the two of us, both playing the cowboy character. Now, apparently he had a different idea of what a "duel" was. So we spot each other at a distance, ponchos flapping in the wind.
"Well hello Eccentric, it's about time we me-" And he was promptly cut off as I shot him down in cold blood. He goes eerily quiet as my coach friend falls over in laughter. Apparently he wanted a classic Western duel whereas I was thinking of Thunderdome. Oops. Well, he decided it was time to even the score. No more pleasantries for me.
So we come at each other again guns blazing, not holding back, bullets whizzing through the air like a nest of angry hornets. And I still promptly riddle him with holes. I sense a disturbance in the Force very close by and my other friend is guffawing that even when playing against a veteran who was serious I still managed to slaughter him. Well, it went rather downhill for me after that. Boy howdy was he mad! Well, what can I say? I was still a complete noob so I feel no shame. But apparently he did.
Next match we use some weird character that I thought was a transvestite but was instead a bard healer character with sonic weapons. It was a bit harder to aim with this gun and he was sliding all over the place. So I did the natural thing when facing an opponent with extreme mobility and a rapid fire weapon: I got in his face and punched him to death. As he tries skating away I chased after him, pounding the melee key as my armored fist slammed into his face again and again as I hummed the Rocky theme. Again raucous laughter, as apparently melee attacks do jack in this game and this character regenerates like Wolverine. Man, my noob powers sure helped me out there! Apparently using characters in the completely wrong ways has its own advantages.
So, go buy Overwatch! Noobs have the advantage!
Monday, June 20, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
Terrorists and Vultures
Dang it. The minute I return from a glorious vacation and I come back to this mess. Just like every human being in the world that possesses a soul, I felt loathing and rage at hearing about the hideous atrocity that had taken place in Orlando. I differed slightly from many people however in that I wasn't surprised. ISIS has been upping its recruiting efforts to anyone they can find and my only surprise was that this didn't happened sooner here. Seriously, after Paris and other attacks with ISIS saying that they're coming after the United States next and want to do nothing short of annihilate us, most people just thought they were throwing a hissy fit. Of course this was going to happen.
The fact that it happened at a gay bar doesn't shock me either. Fun fact Social Justice Warriors: Islam loathes homosexuality with a passion. So with the current administration doing frak all to try and keep an eye on Islam extremists within our own borders and keeping other extremists out, this was an inevitability. My heart goes out to those who suffered from this act of evil. Despite the popular trope of the homophobic Christian, I actually care about them deeply. After all, they are God's children like the rest of us. I try to follow the example of Jesus who showed love for all without any conditions whatsoever. They didn't deserve this. Nobody deserved this.
This piece of excrement disguised as a human being openly and willingly committed an act of unvarnished evil. I don't envy the judgement he will receive in the afterlife. I will give props to some of the Muslims here though for coming right out and condemning this man for his acts of evil. They don't like ISIS members any more than us normal people do, and good for them.
But what disgusts me even more? Before the bodies of these innocent men and women were even cold the anti-gunners came out of the woodwork, circling the carnage like vultures to take advantage of the tragedy for their own political gains. Yes, I'm looking at you Hillary the Hutt. Every time a group of people gets massacred by some freak, these people without conscience or honor swoop down to use these acts of evil as a hammer to ram their own agenda through. They couldn't even wait one week out of respect for the dead before calling out for action. They couldn't even wait for the blood to dry.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gun control doesn't do jack spit for these sorts of things. Another Assault Weapons Ban would do nothing. No gun confiscations or gun-free zones would have helped one iota. Most of the AK-47s in Afghanistan weren't imported but made right there in the midst of the conflict inside garages with hand tools. Also it was another man with a gun present that actually slowed this evil man down. The minute the terrorist received return fire he bolted into a bathroom for cover. What if he hadn't come along? How many more would be dead? But no, the solution is clearly to disarm even more people and leave them even more vulnerable. Save the sheep by locking up the sheep dogs and tearing down the fences. That'll teach the wolves.
Let's just magically imagine that somehow we could employ effective gun control. Somehow the hundreds of millions of rifles, shotguns and pistols in the US were confiscated and nothing was left. Do you really think that would've stopped this guy? I mean it's not like he could've used something else like a machete and gone happily a-chopping away in a crowded club.
Or used an axe.
Or made a chlorine bomb.
Or blocked the exits and started lobbing Molotov cocktails through the windows.
Or made some kitchen explosives and rolled them into the midst of the dancers.
Or hijacked a fuel truck and rammed it through the front doors with a flaming rag in the gas tank.
Or gotten a few other extremist friends together with kitchen knives and gone Michael Meyers.
Simply put, these terrorists are NOT going away. They hate us and want to kill us. They don't care if we try to make friends. They aren't going to vanish if we change slightly. ISIS believes they are endowed by Allah to kill all infidels and to bring about the Apocalypse. They want to start a war. They want to commit horrible atrocities. You can't talk these guys out of it. The only option is to fight them wherever they crop up. It's time to stop cowering like Eloi and take the fight to them. Anytime one of them tries something here every person in the vicinity should pick up any hard object in reach and rush the monsters and beat them into piles of jelly. Armed or not, we should make sure that anytime they want to commit another massacre they know it's a one way ticket.
Disarming Americans won't stop evil. It won't even slow them down. It only gives them easier targets. Notice how there haven't been a whole lot of terrorist attacks in Texas where even the toddlers are armed. Or Montana. Or Oregon. Oh I'm sure ISIS will try, but they won't get very far.
Evil will never fully go away. It crops up in different forms and under different names. The solution isn't to debate with evil or negotiate. The only way to deal with evil is to fight it without hesitation. No matter where you are, you can always fight back. Learn how to do so. Conviction and a fighting spirit is worth far more than an unmotivated man with a machine gun. So wherever you are, arm up, buckle down, and get ready to fight. Evil is coming, and it won't spare you. ISIS believes it can win and they aren't going to stop.
I'm not going to debate about the complex political situations in the Middle East. I offer no solutions because I don't believe any simple one exists. It's a mess over there and I have no illusions that it can be dealt with easily. They've been having conflicts for centuries. I consider myself an intellectual, but when it comes to people trying to murder others my thin veneer of civilization fades and I fall back to caveman instincts. If these buggers are trying to kill us, kill them back. Might not solve every problem, but it'll mitigate at least one. I don't care if this sounds harsh or cruel. If someone pulls a gun on me I'm going to pull mine. Survival doesn't care about feelings.
And to you soulless cowards who are exploiting this massacre for political gain, stop being friends to terrorism. Stop using the blood of the innocent to sign your names on new laws and regulations. And stop trying to hand-wave the threat away for political correctness. Burying your head in the sand won't save anyone. ISIS is flat out evil. Stop giving me that crap about how not all Muslims are evil. Everyone and their dog knows that. That's why we're saying we should fight ISIS, not Islam you frigging idiots. Your fear of over generalization is only empowering the evil men who are killing other Muslims and everyone else under the sun. So while you're worried that innocent Muslims will get hurt, innocent Muslims are getting hurt by not-so-innocent Muslims. Morons.
Keep those who are peaceful in your prayers. Keep those who are evil in your gun sights. Eccentric Cowboy out.
The fact that it happened at a gay bar doesn't shock me either. Fun fact Social Justice Warriors: Islam loathes homosexuality with a passion. So with the current administration doing frak all to try and keep an eye on Islam extremists within our own borders and keeping other extremists out, this was an inevitability. My heart goes out to those who suffered from this act of evil. Despite the popular trope of the homophobic Christian, I actually care about them deeply. After all, they are God's children like the rest of us. I try to follow the example of Jesus who showed love for all without any conditions whatsoever. They didn't deserve this. Nobody deserved this.
This piece of excrement disguised as a human being openly and willingly committed an act of unvarnished evil. I don't envy the judgement he will receive in the afterlife. I will give props to some of the Muslims here though for coming right out and condemning this man for his acts of evil. They don't like ISIS members any more than us normal people do, and good for them.
But what disgusts me even more? Before the bodies of these innocent men and women were even cold the anti-gunners came out of the woodwork, circling the carnage like vultures to take advantage of the tragedy for their own political gains. Yes, I'm looking at you Hillary the Hutt. Every time a group of people gets massacred by some freak, these people without conscience or honor swoop down to use these acts of evil as a hammer to ram their own agenda through. They couldn't even wait one week out of respect for the dead before calling out for action. They couldn't even wait for the blood to dry.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gun control doesn't do jack spit for these sorts of things. Another Assault Weapons Ban would do nothing. No gun confiscations or gun-free zones would have helped one iota. Most of the AK-47s in Afghanistan weren't imported but made right there in the midst of the conflict inside garages with hand tools. Also it was another man with a gun present that actually slowed this evil man down. The minute the terrorist received return fire he bolted into a bathroom for cover. What if he hadn't come along? How many more would be dead? But no, the solution is clearly to disarm even more people and leave them even more vulnerable. Save the sheep by locking up the sheep dogs and tearing down the fences. That'll teach the wolves.
Let's just magically imagine that somehow we could employ effective gun control. Somehow the hundreds of millions of rifles, shotguns and pistols in the US were confiscated and nothing was left. Do you really think that would've stopped this guy? I mean it's not like he could've used something else like a machete and gone happily a-chopping away in a crowded club.
Or used an axe.
Or made a chlorine bomb.
Or blocked the exits and started lobbing Molotov cocktails through the windows.
Or made some kitchen explosives and rolled them into the midst of the dancers.
Or hijacked a fuel truck and rammed it through the front doors with a flaming rag in the gas tank.
Or gotten a few other extremist friends together with kitchen knives and gone Michael Meyers.
Simply put, these terrorists are NOT going away. They hate us and want to kill us. They don't care if we try to make friends. They aren't going to vanish if we change slightly. ISIS believes they are endowed by Allah to kill all infidels and to bring about the Apocalypse. They want to start a war. They want to commit horrible atrocities. You can't talk these guys out of it. The only option is to fight them wherever they crop up. It's time to stop cowering like Eloi and take the fight to them. Anytime one of them tries something here every person in the vicinity should pick up any hard object in reach and rush the monsters and beat them into piles of jelly. Armed or not, we should make sure that anytime they want to commit another massacre they know it's a one way ticket.
Disarming Americans won't stop evil. It won't even slow them down. It only gives them easier targets. Notice how there haven't been a whole lot of terrorist attacks in Texas where even the toddlers are armed. Or Montana. Or Oregon. Oh I'm sure ISIS will try, but they won't get very far.
Evil will never fully go away. It crops up in different forms and under different names. The solution isn't to debate with evil or negotiate. The only way to deal with evil is to fight it without hesitation. No matter where you are, you can always fight back. Learn how to do so. Conviction and a fighting spirit is worth far more than an unmotivated man with a machine gun. So wherever you are, arm up, buckle down, and get ready to fight. Evil is coming, and it won't spare you. ISIS believes it can win and they aren't going to stop.
I'm not going to debate about the complex political situations in the Middle East. I offer no solutions because I don't believe any simple one exists. It's a mess over there and I have no illusions that it can be dealt with easily. They've been having conflicts for centuries. I consider myself an intellectual, but when it comes to people trying to murder others my thin veneer of civilization fades and I fall back to caveman instincts. If these buggers are trying to kill us, kill them back. Might not solve every problem, but it'll mitigate at least one. I don't care if this sounds harsh or cruel. If someone pulls a gun on me I'm going to pull mine. Survival doesn't care about feelings.
And to you soulless cowards who are exploiting this massacre for political gain, stop being friends to terrorism. Stop using the blood of the innocent to sign your names on new laws and regulations. And stop trying to hand-wave the threat away for political correctness. Burying your head in the sand won't save anyone. ISIS is flat out evil. Stop giving me that crap about how not all Muslims are evil. Everyone and their dog knows that. That's why we're saying we should fight ISIS, not Islam you frigging idiots. Your fear of over generalization is only empowering the evil men who are killing other Muslims and everyone else under the sun. So while you're worried that innocent Muslims will get hurt, innocent Muslims are getting hurt by not-so-innocent Muslims. Morons.
Keep those who are peaceful in your prayers. Keep those who are evil in your gun sights. Eccentric Cowboy out.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Real life World of Tanks
Remember how I mentioned loving World of Tanks? Well if you want to know what 99% of matches are like without watching a let's play video or something like that, take a look at this genius parody. But as the title implies, don't drink anything while watching unless you like cleaning coffee off of your keyboard or screen. You're welcome world!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meT6Gc1JI6o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meT6Gc1JI6o
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
The Woman of My Dreams
Dear gentle readers, last night was an experience I'll never forget, for it was when I met the woman of my dreams. It sounds fanciful, I know, but what I say is absolutely true!
I don't recall where we were or even what we were doing, but somehow we just clicked. She was gorgeous. She had a face that smote every man upon his heart and none could hope to resist. Her laugh was like the ringing of a bell. Looking into her eyes you could feel yourself swept up in bliss. For reasons I'll never know, she chose me as the object of her affections. Under her gentle caresses I melted like butter. Her smile tamed my wild heart and at a gesture I was a slave to her every whim. I was adrift on a sea of euphoria without a single worry imaginable. It was a wonderful time which words can never fully capture.
But then Reality stepped in and I woke up. If I weren't a God fearing man I can only imagine the profanity that would have spilled from my mouth when I realized that my subconscious had been screwing with me. Sadistic p***k. Sigh. Well, time for me to Declare War on my own brain.
I don't recall where we were or even what we were doing, but somehow we just clicked. She was gorgeous. She had a face that smote every man upon his heart and none could hope to resist. Her laugh was like the ringing of a bell. Looking into her eyes you could feel yourself swept up in bliss. For reasons I'll never know, she chose me as the object of her affections. Under her gentle caresses I melted like butter. Her smile tamed my wild heart and at a gesture I was a slave to her every whim. I was adrift on a sea of euphoria without a single worry imaginable. It was a wonderful time which words can never fully capture.
But then Reality stepped in and I woke up. If I weren't a God fearing man I can only imagine the profanity that would have spilled from my mouth when I realized that my subconscious had been screwing with me. Sadistic p***k. Sigh. Well, time for me to Declare War on my own brain.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Nile Crocs in Florida? This will be interesting
According to this article several potent Nile crocodiles have been found snooping around in the lovely Everglades of Florida. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-crocodiles-everglades-20160519-story.html
Apparently regular American alligators, American crocodiles, snakeheads, invasive Burmese pythons and other critters aren't enough already. As a good rule of thumb, for every croc you do see, there are probably a passel more than you are not seeing. Ecologically these things coming over here will be pretty disastrous. Good luck getting rid of them if they get a foothold here. For reasons I've never been able to fathom American crocs are very timid animals and are almost never aggressive towards humans. I'd be surprised if none of them ever tried taking a snap at someone way back in the day when people walked in leather boots and tri-corner hats, but in general these critters aren't too bad.
Gators can be mighty snippy though and have taken a few humans in the years, but these are nothing like the Nile croc. The article states that around 200 humans are taken each year in Africa by Nile crocs. Ha! At best that's a conservative estimate. Believe it or not, most of the countries throughout the southern half of Africa don't send bureau census takers out into every village and niche in the scrub to find out who gets killed by what for proper records. In reality dozens of people are taken every month throughout the continent. So there are tons of attacks that go unreported. Also they tend to not like to advertise that sort of thing. Bad for tourism you see. Peter Capstick, who spent years in the 70's as a professional hunter in Zambia and Bostwana, mostly the Okavango Delta, became intimately familiar with the habits of crocs and supposed that ten people were taken per day total!
I know for a fact in one region one person was being killed per day, even outside the water. Nile crocs are nothing if not determined buggers. So what will happen if they establish themselves here? Expect hippies to start getting eaten. See, us Americans are spoiled when it comes to game. Our snakes are less venomous and aggressive than in any other country barring Canada and Iceland. American wolves are pacifists unlike European wolves which have killed hundreds of people. Mountain lions don't do jack in comparison to African lions or Asian leopards. Only twelve confirmed kills? You lazy jerks. No native big constrictors, even though even Australia has a few. Even our sharks are underachievers. Sure, there were a few attacks in New Jersey. In the nineteen aughts. We don't get cool things like the Nicaraguan river shark, Ganges shark, or Zambezi river shark. At least we have some bears that occasionally get off their lazy arses and get their man-eater on. Have fun with that Timothy Treadwell! Ha!
But this relatively tame landscape is part of what has led many Americans to believe animals are rarely dangerous. You'll notice that there aren't many members of PETA in the depths of Brazil or Papua New Guinea. We really haven't had to deal all that much with the idea of animals eating us. But if Nile crocs branch out here? Well, that's going to change things. You can bet your boots that just because they are in the land of freedom that they'll change their culinary habits. At best we can expect a lot of cattle and house pets vanishing at a greater rate. I'd love to see PETA or the ALF try to humanize crocodiles with them nabbing a kid's dog right off of the side of a lake. Which will happen.
Personally, I think most Americans need to harden up. Now this is just wishful thinking on my part. I don't think Niles are going to get too well established here. At least not right now. Maybe in a few decades we'll have a few notable man-eaters, but you can count on that news being pretty well repressed. Ah well. Think we can import any other dangerous wildlife here? I heard jaguars are making a slow come back, but they are underachievers too. Think we could import some African leopards?
Apparently regular American alligators, American crocodiles, snakeheads, invasive Burmese pythons and other critters aren't enough already. As a good rule of thumb, for every croc you do see, there are probably a passel more than you are not seeing. Ecologically these things coming over here will be pretty disastrous. Good luck getting rid of them if they get a foothold here. For reasons I've never been able to fathom American crocs are very timid animals and are almost never aggressive towards humans. I'd be surprised if none of them ever tried taking a snap at someone way back in the day when people walked in leather boots and tri-corner hats, but in general these critters aren't too bad.
Gators can be mighty snippy though and have taken a few humans in the years, but these are nothing like the Nile croc. The article states that around 200 humans are taken each year in Africa by Nile crocs. Ha! At best that's a conservative estimate. Believe it or not, most of the countries throughout the southern half of Africa don't send bureau census takers out into every village and niche in the scrub to find out who gets killed by what for proper records. In reality dozens of people are taken every month throughout the continent. So there are tons of attacks that go unreported. Also they tend to not like to advertise that sort of thing. Bad for tourism you see. Peter Capstick, who spent years in the 70's as a professional hunter in Zambia and Bostwana, mostly the Okavango Delta, became intimately familiar with the habits of crocs and supposed that ten people were taken per day total!
I know for a fact in one region one person was being killed per day, even outside the water. Nile crocs are nothing if not determined buggers. So what will happen if they establish themselves here? Expect hippies to start getting eaten. See, us Americans are spoiled when it comes to game. Our snakes are less venomous and aggressive than in any other country barring Canada and Iceland. American wolves are pacifists unlike European wolves which have killed hundreds of people. Mountain lions don't do jack in comparison to African lions or Asian leopards. Only twelve confirmed kills? You lazy jerks. No native big constrictors, even though even Australia has a few. Even our sharks are underachievers. Sure, there were a few attacks in New Jersey. In the nineteen aughts. We don't get cool things like the Nicaraguan river shark, Ganges shark, or Zambezi river shark. At least we have some bears that occasionally get off their lazy arses and get their man-eater on. Have fun with that Timothy Treadwell! Ha!
But this relatively tame landscape is part of what has led many Americans to believe animals are rarely dangerous. You'll notice that there aren't many members of PETA in the depths of Brazil or Papua New Guinea. We really haven't had to deal all that much with the idea of animals eating us. But if Nile crocs branch out here? Well, that's going to change things. You can bet your boots that just because they are in the land of freedom that they'll change their culinary habits. At best we can expect a lot of cattle and house pets vanishing at a greater rate. I'd love to see PETA or the ALF try to humanize crocodiles with them nabbing a kid's dog right off of the side of a lake. Which will happen.
Personally, I think most Americans need to harden up. Now this is just wishful thinking on my part. I don't think Niles are going to get too well established here. At least not right now. Maybe in a few decades we'll have a few notable man-eaters, but you can count on that news being pretty well repressed. Ah well. Think we can import any other dangerous wildlife here? I heard jaguars are making a slow come back, but they are underachievers too. Think we could import some African leopards?
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
World of Tanks mania!
Good grief is this game addicting. I'm not sure what it is, but a game where tank and artillery shells come whizzing past your turret or explode with enough volume to make your speakers crackle amidst a shower of shrapnel and flame is something that never really gets old. Or maybe I answered my question right there.
Anyway World of Tanks is perhaps the best tank game ever made. I'm actually glad that this MMO doesn't have a timer on it, because I can only imagine how many hours I've wasted playing it. I've focused the majority of my efforts on the German line, cuz the Germans really know how to build good guns. Early on in the game I became frustrated with not being able to penetrate enemies from the front, cuz some boast some excellent armor. I decided I wanted to go down the tech trees that had the best penetrating guns, and those are most often ze German gunz! Although if you hide low enough, you'll be safe from them, because these tanks don't have jack for gun depression.
Lately I've made some major headway in unlocking some REAL high tier warmachines such as the armored monster, the E-75 German heavy tank and the E-50 medium tank. The latter has all the attributes I love in a medium tank: Fast, maneuverable, decent armor, high penetrating gun and enough moxie to go head to head with quite a few other armored vehicles. Soon I'll have access to the deadly E-100 which is a solid block of angled steel that happens to house a gun and crew, and the E-50M, which has a laser-accurate gun that can penetrate mountains as well as outrun most other tanks.
The downside at playing at these high tiers is that you're facing other guys with high tier tanks. Some of those American heavies are just plain unfair to shoot at, especially when they will deflect even meteors if you hit them at the wrong angle, which is all of the time. Word of advice high-tier players: Look up weak points! Even with really high-penetrating guns you'll need to know where to hit them to make it actually hurt.
The Japanese heavies are actually pretty fun too. Well, the medium tier ones anyway. I'm extremely amused by them, since they look uncannily like tanks I drew fighting kaiju back in school when I was supposed to be paying attention to whatever the teachers were blathering on about at the time. No specialized angles or sloping here! Nope! Just slap on another five inches of flat steel plate and these things are good to go. They are basically houses disguised as vehicles. So if you like the idea of driving a mountain with a gun on it, then the Japanese heavy line is the one for you! Be careful about tier 4 tanks though. Tier 4 tends to be the dumping ground for piece of crap tanks. After that they get good, but it feels like the game is saying "Yeah, you can play the good tanks, but you've gotta earn it first."
I love playing artillery. Being a Finger of God can earn the ire of enemy players like nothing else. I think they're actually one of the hardest vehicle types to play just because you have to be so patient and you deal with the least accurate guns in the game. Even with the most accurate guns, German guns again of course, you can end up missing what look like sure shots. I always enjoy scoring a kill and having enemy guys swearing at me with religions I never heard of. I've actually never been mad at dying from artillery because every time I knew it was my fault for getting caught out in the open. But the loathing held for these things is pretty awe inspiring. Once I got killed by an American M37 and complimented the guy on making the difficult shot, telling him it was a tank that took skill to use. His own team mates began yelling at me for being a good sport!
I also wouldn't qualify this as a "Free to play, Pay to win" game. You can get almost any vehicle in this game as long as you have patience and time. But what you can pay for really makes a difference. See, I'm an extremely cheap gamer. I will wait years for the price on a game to go down. I can outlast them. I can use that extra ten dollars for something else now! So in free to play games I'll almost always suck it up and grind whatever I have to in order to avoid spending money. But after blowing perhaps a thousand hours on this game I realized something. This was so much fun, offered so much entertainment and was overall just so good, that these guys deserved my money. If you're spending more time on a game than you are with family and having even more fun because of it, then it's something worthy of your monetary investment.
I like how just because you pay money though it doesn't give you an unfair advantage. It doesn't mean you don't have to grind or are given overpowered equipment. You still have to play, play with skill and earn your way up to get the good tanks. This just happens to ease the burden.
Well, back to the old grindstone! As one of my favorite authors once said: Keeping your nose to the grindstone with either produce a very callused nose or a bloody grindstone. Words of inspiration to be sure.
Anyway World of Tanks is perhaps the best tank game ever made. I'm actually glad that this MMO doesn't have a timer on it, because I can only imagine how many hours I've wasted playing it. I've focused the majority of my efforts on the German line, cuz the Germans really know how to build good guns. Early on in the game I became frustrated with not being able to penetrate enemies from the front, cuz some boast some excellent armor. I decided I wanted to go down the tech trees that had the best penetrating guns, and those are most often ze German gunz! Although if you hide low enough, you'll be safe from them, because these tanks don't have jack for gun depression.
Lately I've made some major headway in unlocking some REAL high tier warmachines such as the armored monster, the E-75 German heavy tank and the E-50 medium tank. The latter has all the attributes I love in a medium tank: Fast, maneuverable, decent armor, high penetrating gun and enough moxie to go head to head with quite a few other armored vehicles. Soon I'll have access to the deadly E-100 which is a solid block of angled steel that happens to house a gun and crew, and the E-50M, which has a laser-accurate gun that can penetrate mountains as well as outrun most other tanks.
The downside at playing at these high tiers is that you're facing other guys with high tier tanks. Some of those American heavies are just plain unfair to shoot at, especially when they will deflect even meteors if you hit them at the wrong angle, which is all of the time. Word of advice high-tier players: Look up weak points! Even with really high-penetrating guns you'll need to know where to hit them to make it actually hurt.
The Japanese heavies are actually pretty fun too. Well, the medium tier ones anyway. I'm extremely amused by them, since they look uncannily like tanks I drew fighting kaiju back in school when I was supposed to be paying attention to whatever the teachers were blathering on about at the time. No specialized angles or sloping here! Nope! Just slap on another five inches of flat steel plate and these things are good to go. They are basically houses disguised as vehicles. So if you like the idea of driving a mountain with a gun on it, then the Japanese heavy line is the one for you! Be careful about tier 4 tanks though. Tier 4 tends to be the dumping ground for piece of crap tanks. After that they get good, but it feels like the game is saying "Yeah, you can play the good tanks, but you've gotta earn it first."
I love playing artillery. Being a Finger of God can earn the ire of enemy players like nothing else. I think they're actually one of the hardest vehicle types to play just because you have to be so patient and you deal with the least accurate guns in the game. Even with the most accurate guns, German guns again of course, you can end up missing what look like sure shots. I always enjoy scoring a kill and having enemy guys swearing at me with religions I never heard of. I've actually never been mad at dying from artillery because every time I knew it was my fault for getting caught out in the open. But the loathing held for these things is pretty awe inspiring. Once I got killed by an American M37 and complimented the guy on making the difficult shot, telling him it was a tank that took skill to use. His own team mates began yelling at me for being a good sport!
I also wouldn't qualify this as a "Free to play, Pay to win" game. You can get almost any vehicle in this game as long as you have patience and time. But what you can pay for really makes a difference. See, I'm an extremely cheap gamer. I will wait years for the price on a game to go down. I can outlast them. I can use that extra ten dollars for something else now! So in free to play games I'll almost always suck it up and grind whatever I have to in order to avoid spending money. But after blowing perhaps a thousand hours on this game I realized something. This was so much fun, offered so much entertainment and was overall just so good, that these guys deserved my money. If you're spending more time on a game than you are with family and having even more fun because of it, then it's something worthy of your monetary investment.
I like how just because you pay money though it doesn't give you an unfair advantage. It doesn't mean you don't have to grind or are given overpowered equipment. You still have to play, play with skill and earn your way up to get the good tanks. This just happens to ease the burden.
Well, back to the old grindstone! As one of my favorite authors once said: Keeping your nose to the grindstone with either produce a very callused nose or a bloody grindstone. Words of inspiration to be sure.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Why I Write
Why does someone like me spend so much time, effort and money on writing stories? What prompts me to go to such lengths to improve? This is something I've pondered on a lot lately and something I feel is worth sharing.
I have two primary reasons for writing, and both are major. And yet one is almost an amalgamation of reasons all squooshed together into a hybrid reason. Perhaps it will make sense to those of you with an artistic heart.
Let's get the first reason out of the way up front. Simply, I need a way to make money. I know that's not what budding artists are supposed to say, but I don't like being a starving artist. I'd much rather be an artist with a full pantry. Heaven knows I've spent plenty of time already with an empty one. I also feel that having a full stomach is far more conductive to making one's muse speak. I've spent my entire working career doing bottom dollar jobs in the food business and I don't plan on making a living in a cubicle later on in life. But I also desperately wish to have a family who can depend on me and who I can support and give them all that they truly deserve. So it is my vocation to be a writer in hopes of eventually making enough money to not only survive off of, but thrive.
The second reason is far more complex, so perhaps a history lesson of my life is in order so that some of you may understand where I'm coming from. As a child in school I was always the smallest kid in class who didn't speak much and always kept to himself. You know the kid I'm talking about. Some of you probably were that kid. I always hated school. I was always a target for torment and had a myriad of social problems. But I always had a gateway from the torments of reality. By opening up a book I could transport myself as if by magic into another realm entirely.
I could be on a ship roaring through the cold depths of space as laser weapons hissed and crackled in firefights with aliens. I could be transported to an expedition penetrating into the misty depths of the Congo. I could be in a mystery revolving around otherworldly powers. In short, through a book, I could be anywhere and anything. As I got older and had a bit more money in my pocket I was able to expand my literary horizons and delve into subjects that had before been beyond my reach. I will be forever grateful to my aunt who handed me a pile of hand-me-down books which housed a handful of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels. That was my entrance into pulp, and as a brooding teen that was my getaway drug.
School also helped me overdevelop my imagination. It was either find a way to detach myself from reality in hard core daydreaming or slip into a coma from the mind numbing boredom that I was relentlessly bombarded with in the classroom. This would later come in handy at my first job where I have to perform a repetitive and boring task for hours on end without pause. I eventually got it down to muscle memory and I don't really even have to pay attention to it. So while everyone else is wondering how I'm able to stand the boredom I have wars with railguns and ospreys going on in my head. Thank you imagination!
As I grew older and learned more I became more and more fascinated with how a writer from decades or even centuries ago could still have such a vivid influence on someone like me, or many someones like me. Tarzan isn't exactly a small deal. There were of course tons of other writers that I loved, but ERB was one of the ones that really stuck with me. It still amazes me that someone who wrote stories in such a dramatically different environment from the one today could still be so relevant. Slowly the idea began to form that if I wanted to leave my footprint on society and the world at large, why not become a writer myself? I also noticed with increasing annoyance that there was a depressing lack of books or movies catering to my particular tastes. Eventually I decided that if nobody else was going to be writing stories with cowboys and dinosaurs then darnit I'd do it myself!
In school I'd always exhibited above average writing skills. I had quite a bit of raw talent, and crappy fanfictions I did got a good amount of attention. And in case you're wondering, no, you will never see said fictions. They were awful then and they are far worse now. So if you want to see an example of my writing attempts as an early teen the answer is no. Heck no. And if by some strange quirk of fate you happen to have a copy of any of my crappy writing and want to blackmail me, please meet me at the top of a large flight of stairs and then we can talk.
Back to the history thing, I'd often contemplated being a writer, but I just regarded it as a hypothetical option, the way one does with the idea of being a movie star or astronaut. I didn't think I'd actually be one. Getting into the publishing arena is a tough gig and I was just a punk just out of high school with nothing to my name. I had other career plans and was working hard at trying to get those in order. I was actually planning on becoming a gunsmith and firearm engineer. But something happened and that kind of fell out. I was prompted there again by leaving some sort of mark on society. I wanted to make guns that could please people and bring joy just like the ones I had owned and shot with my dad and friends.
The idea came again of writing. It was a method by which I could bring happiness and a sense of adventure to other people the way Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Crichton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Steve Perry and dozens of other authors had brought countless hours of joy to me. It was a very pleasing thought, the idea that long after I passed away other teenage boys lusting for grand adventure could find joy in things I wrote about decades before.
If this sounds like an ego stroke I apologize. It isn't meant to be. Rather just a realization of how actions can affect people so far in the future.
In the end I really just want to make people happy. I want to inspire them. I want to whisk people off to other worlds to escape the unbearable tedium of regular life. I want to create entire worlds where people feel like they can walk around and interact with the people and things there. At heart I'm still a kid with an imagination that is working major overtime and wanting to indulge in the flights of fancy that we all had as youngsters.
And what better way to make people happy and to leave a lasting impression on people than to become an author? That is why I write.
I have two primary reasons for writing, and both are major. And yet one is almost an amalgamation of reasons all squooshed together into a hybrid reason. Perhaps it will make sense to those of you with an artistic heart.
Let's get the first reason out of the way up front. Simply, I need a way to make money. I know that's not what budding artists are supposed to say, but I don't like being a starving artist. I'd much rather be an artist with a full pantry. Heaven knows I've spent plenty of time already with an empty one. I also feel that having a full stomach is far more conductive to making one's muse speak. I've spent my entire working career doing bottom dollar jobs in the food business and I don't plan on making a living in a cubicle later on in life. But I also desperately wish to have a family who can depend on me and who I can support and give them all that they truly deserve. So it is my vocation to be a writer in hopes of eventually making enough money to not only survive off of, but thrive.
The second reason is far more complex, so perhaps a history lesson of my life is in order so that some of you may understand where I'm coming from. As a child in school I was always the smallest kid in class who didn't speak much and always kept to himself. You know the kid I'm talking about. Some of you probably were that kid. I always hated school. I was always a target for torment and had a myriad of social problems. But I always had a gateway from the torments of reality. By opening up a book I could transport myself as if by magic into another realm entirely.
I could be on a ship roaring through the cold depths of space as laser weapons hissed and crackled in firefights with aliens. I could be transported to an expedition penetrating into the misty depths of the Congo. I could be in a mystery revolving around otherworldly powers. In short, through a book, I could be anywhere and anything. As I got older and had a bit more money in my pocket I was able to expand my literary horizons and delve into subjects that had before been beyond my reach. I will be forever grateful to my aunt who handed me a pile of hand-me-down books which housed a handful of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels. That was my entrance into pulp, and as a brooding teen that was my getaway drug.
School also helped me overdevelop my imagination. It was either find a way to detach myself from reality in hard core daydreaming or slip into a coma from the mind numbing boredom that I was relentlessly bombarded with in the classroom. This would later come in handy at my first job where I have to perform a repetitive and boring task for hours on end without pause. I eventually got it down to muscle memory and I don't really even have to pay attention to it. So while everyone else is wondering how I'm able to stand the boredom I have wars with railguns and ospreys going on in my head. Thank you imagination!
As I grew older and learned more I became more and more fascinated with how a writer from decades or even centuries ago could still have such a vivid influence on someone like me, or many someones like me. Tarzan isn't exactly a small deal. There were of course tons of other writers that I loved, but ERB was one of the ones that really stuck with me. It still amazes me that someone who wrote stories in such a dramatically different environment from the one today could still be so relevant. Slowly the idea began to form that if I wanted to leave my footprint on society and the world at large, why not become a writer myself? I also noticed with increasing annoyance that there was a depressing lack of books or movies catering to my particular tastes. Eventually I decided that if nobody else was going to be writing stories with cowboys and dinosaurs then darnit I'd do it myself!
In school I'd always exhibited above average writing skills. I had quite a bit of raw talent, and crappy fanfictions I did got a good amount of attention. And in case you're wondering, no, you will never see said fictions. They were awful then and they are far worse now. So if you want to see an example of my writing attempts as an early teen the answer is no. Heck no. And if by some strange quirk of fate you happen to have a copy of any of my crappy writing and want to blackmail me, please meet me at the top of a large flight of stairs and then we can talk.
Back to the history thing, I'd often contemplated being a writer, but I just regarded it as a hypothetical option, the way one does with the idea of being a movie star or astronaut. I didn't think I'd actually be one. Getting into the publishing arena is a tough gig and I was just a punk just out of high school with nothing to my name. I had other career plans and was working hard at trying to get those in order. I was actually planning on becoming a gunsmith and firearm engineer. But something happened and that kind of fell out. I was prompted there again by leaving some sort of mark on society. I wanted to make guns that could please people and bring joy just like the ones I had owned and shot with my dad and friends.
The idea came again of writing. It was a method by which I could bring happiness and a sense of adventure to other people the way Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Crichton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Steve Perry and dozens of other authors had brought countless hours of joy to me. It was a very pleasing thought, the idea that long after I passed away other teenage boys lusting for grand adventure could find joy in things I wrote about decades before.
If this sounds like an ego stroke I apologize. It isn't meant to be. Rather just a realization of how actions can affect people so far in the future.
In the end I really just want to make people happy. I want to inspire them. I want to whisk people off to other worlds to escape the unbearable tedium of regular life. I want to create entire worlds where people feel like they can walk around and interact with the people and things there. At heart I'm still a kid with an imagination that is working major overtime and wanting to indulge in the flights of fancy that we all had as youngsters.
And what better way to make people happy and to leave a lasting impression on people than to become an author? That is why I write.
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