5 things that kept me distracted this week:
Now back to the distractions!
Disclaimer: Before all the Modern Warfare 1 fans and Bad Company 2 fans hate on me for liking Modern Warfare 2, might I clarify that:
So I’ve been getting some rave reviews from other players that I happen upon randomly in Infinity Ward’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″. Half the people that play with me and contact me end up sending me friend requests, and the other half send me messages telling me how much they hate my funky fresh style, like this one:
danger close noob tube camping and oma means your a noob
- mbrooker91, spelling is terribad, but true to the messagedoesn’t that mean you just went 0 and 6 with a noob?
- me the Awesome, my response to him
Note: For the record, I remember bombing this specific guy once as he ran right across the area in front of me, twice more when he was feebly hiding behind a dumpster in the distance, once as he was running straight at me down a tunnel, once when he tried to sneak up on me behind some barrels, and he ate a claymore in the face. I’m also pretty sure I called a precision airstrike right on his head, and shot him with a few howitzers out of an AC130 gunship. So, I mean, I can understand why he’d be pissed. I’d be angry too if I sucked that hard.
Bite me, mbrooker91.
I’m putting this at the start, so people who aren’t inclined to read the whole damn rant (there’s plenty of stuff that only matters to you if you play Modern Warfare 2) can still get my point. You can skip the rest of this rant if you don’t like reading about detailed nerdy stuff, but here are the main points:
From the conclusion at the end of this post:
Point of the story is, don’t bitch about some guy who is creaming you just because he’s doing it with only one or two (really simple) tricks. Quality players adapt and change when things don’t seem to work. Stubborn/persistent players try the same thing again and again (usually to no avail), and little bitches cry and whine about how unfair the world is.
What a mbrooker91 looks like in real life.
This is true in life as well, from both points of view. For one, it’s just good sense to put forethought, critical thinking, and contingencies into your plans. Alternatively, when something doesn’t go your way, you can either avoid it, overcome the obstacle, stupidly attack it the same way every time, or lay down and die, bitching about it all way down.
Time to catch up quickly! What better way than a self-Q&A session? No, really, name them!
Where have you gone as of late, Carl?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
What’s that?
It’s a video game. Can’t talk. Busy shooting things.
What about other things?
What other things? Oh I guess I do still work during the day.
That’s it? Work and gaming?!
Yeah pretty much. Work all day, game most of the night (with eating and whatnot shoved in somewhere).
Well then, how is work? How’s the project coming along?
Work is fine. The project, a project portfolio/tracking automation system designed by yours truly is more or less up and running. I’m in the process of creating and adding new views/ways to consume the information.
I’ve also nicknamed her “Potts”, as in Pepper Potts (Tony Stark’s secretary). Potts pretty much takes care of all the annoying/repetitive parts of my job so I can get back to being badass.
My boss seems pretty impressed/happy with my results. I’ve built this automation system on the intranet database system (Ollie/Livelink), making use of WebForms, LiveReports (glorified SQL queries), and WebReports, with plenty of CSS, HTML, JavaScript, a Livelink language layer, and a whole lot of self-teaching. I’d say that creating a system that automatically updates and generates content/displays/views to interact with the data is pretty damn good for a coop with just some basic Excel, HTML, and Scheme know-how at the start of the term.
You sound quite pleased with yourself.
What can I say, someone has to be, right?
And there’s absolutely nothing else you’re up to?
Well, I also manage to find time to work on Amy’s birthday present.
What is it?
It’s awesome. Can’t say much else, since it’s pretty secret this time. Kind of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” affair at the moment. Nearly complete, and all the little gears and cogs are falling into place. Should definitely be finished on time.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to your fans?
First off, I’d like to thank the Academy, my parents, and God for this. Also, everyone at the studio and special effects studio! You know who you are! I couldn’t have done this without you!
…
Seemed apt at the time. I believe we’re done here! Back to my rainy day at work + hope for breaking 2.00 kill-death tonight/this weekend.
[Updated!] 5 6 things gaming has taught me:
In many adventure games, finding hidden or special items sometimes comes down to solving puzzles or noticing an alternate path that leads to (potentially) a room full of treasure. In first-person shooters (FPS), you get paid handsomely if you can notice a tiny movement in a distant window, or a shadow behind a crate. The lesson is basically that the details often matter. They may not be entirely crucial (you can often forgo those special treasures or take on a few extra deaths/less kills), but life’s more fun with details. They are significant. This brings me to my next point:
Do I really need the extra gold from completing every quest? Will catching all the Pokémon really be worth my while? How much do I really want that bunker on the map? There are objectives in games, and in life, and not all are necessarily meaningful. If the point of a deathmatch is to simply get more kills faster, why capture a particular point on the map? Especially if it’s hard to defend once you take it—you’ll be putting yourself in an exposed position, in harm’s way, for no real/actual advantage. Life is like this. Some things are worth the risk in chasing, seeking, and obtaining. Others may seem important, but panning out (perhaps during a killcam?) and a little critical thinking will expose these “goals” as mere distractions. Be careful where you invest yourself.
Everyone has had that one Pokémon they beef up way more than the rest, simply because they like that one the best, or it was their starter. Likewise, there are often stellar killers on some teams in FPS games that are one-man wrecking crews, racking up the bulk of their “team”‘s points. The Lone Wolf archetype generally conflicts with the Team Player. Simply put, weaker teammates will drag you down. They give away your position, or draw enemy fire, or fail to watch their corners, etc…. But, in real life and in video games, to do truly amazing and win every time, you must do amazing and win as a team. This goes for everything, from a project team at work to your Battle Tower team in Pokémon, to your squad in Call of Duty. You can have the best kill : death ratio of all your friends, but this doesn’t guarantee anything for your win : loss (see mine, at ~1.3 K:D and ~0.9 W:L).
With how gamers are portrayed on the media, you’d think games were a braindeadening hobby of dumb people doing dumber things. Anyone who thinks this has never spoken to Herman Chan about Pokémon teams. They’ve probably also never played Metal Gear Solid, or planned out how to clear out a room full of enemies with twelve bullets left. You can shave a few moments off your reaction time if you are already anticipating the pending action. Sure, you can go through matches without much forethought, sprinting around like an idiot in the open as cannon fodder. Or you can make the conscious decision to think ahead and end up ahead. Good planning is reacting in advance!
Many times, our instinct is to dig our heels in and fight out a grudge match with an opponent. Be it about pride, ego, or an overestimation of one’s ability to take on an entire squad alone, we all have our reasons for refusing to back down. This is usually what happens just before you get outdone, outgunned, or outmaneuvered. This kind of stubbornness/tunnel vision never makes any sense when you think for a bigger picture, about the current situation. Simply put, if the odds are stacked against you, you can either make an epic (but fatal) last stand, or you can slip off to get a second encounter, and hope that the tables have turned in your favour by then. Adapting this to real life, you often need to make snap decisions for the immediate situation, but remember the big picture. Consider the long run as you decide for the moment.
This is especially true in FPS. There are really only two kinds of high scoring players: campers and stalkers. Campers use one aspect of the environment/map to their advantage, staking out a good spot and preying on unwary passer-bys (pass-byers? pass-buyers? passer-bis?). These people can get some sick scores, since they mostly just abuse one bottle-neck or cheap trick. If the opponents aren’t completely senseless, they eventually decide to gang up/sneak up on this one camper and take him out. Then there are stalkers, who sneakily track down enemies and off them as opportunity allows. These players are forced to out-think, out-sneak, and only rarely out-gun their opponents. These are also the ones who inevitably end up constantly on the move, so that they are never in one place too long. They do better in the long run, trust me.
And as for anyone who tells you you can’t learn from video games, you can tell them a true student can learn from anything. Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of origin. *validates own gaming addiction*
Welcome the latest addition to our tech-family my brand new PS3 Slim. I did not get the increased (to 250 GB) model and opted instead of an extended, 2-year “don’t ask, don’t tell” warranty from Future Shop. This is mostly because I will later on expand the hard drive myself with something huge and inexpensive when it is time. Or, I will be streaming stuff off a home server anyway so there’s no need to store much content on the PS3 itself.
Anyway, other players in my game of chess include a HDMI (male) to DVI-D (female) connector bit, so I can connect my existing ass-kicking 22″, HDCP compliant computer monitor (Hans, as I named him), and—in the audio department—a pair of sister parts: a stereo audio RCA (female) to 3.5 mm (male) connector, and a 3.5 mm female-to-female bridge piece. With these two together, I will be able to game on my PS3 while plugging into audio with my headphones, or any set of speakers I may acquire later on.
Also, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is on the way, so that’s going to be my main game for the next long while. In the meantime, MGS4 (that I bought last year) and Mirror’s Edge (today, new for $20 at Game Stop) will keep me preoccupied. I will also go ahead and set up a PSN account too. But, alas, it is time to bed. But yes, woohoo to the max.
Note: I have yet to come up with a good name (female) for my PS3 and am open to suggestions (though I reserve the right to ridicule horrible suggestions). Leave one (or more) in the comments if you please.
My mom has gone to Hong Kong. I am currently at home, in Toronto.
This is long overdue!
5 things I had to buy recently:
Total: $92 + ?
The good news is that I will not need to spend any more money on any more things until after Christmas.
In other, more free, news, I started a new game in Tactics Ogre for the PSX on my PSP and am soon to acquire three Terror Knights, after having built up my two Holy Dragons. All that would be left is to recruit Vice back and then upgrade my main character (I called him Captain Owl, leader of the Snowls) to the Lord class (two swords + healing magic + major offense).
Also, if you are a Mac user, MacHeist is holding another nano-bundle thing and there’s lots of free licenses for paid software for members of MacHeist. Check it out if you like the proposition of free software! I am digging my free copy of Twitterific.
