Monthly Archives: February 2007

Uru Update… Ouch

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So I’ve started to get into the habit of taking a look-see around Uru every day or so, just to get a feel for where things are. I’m honestly trying to like Uru. Really, I am… But when there’s someone in the City going on and on and on about how they want the Temple of Yahvo restored by the DRC right this very minute, and they keep ranting this pre-written speech while everyone else in the city is trying to make them stop? That kind of gets on my nerves. (And everyone else’s, I might add.)

But that’s not why I’m here. Just wanted to open with “yes, I’ve been visiting Uru Live”. Under another name, since everyone seems to think “GermanShepherd” is either a crazy right-wing lunatic who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, or he’s a cute dog who pokes his nose in neighborhoods. (Kind of interesting to get that reaction from people once more… Nobody knows me anymore. Somewhat encouraging.)

Anyway, I decide to check out Uru before class. Got an hour to burn and I don’t really want to blow it on ANOTHER assignment, so I load up Uru and get a brand new update screen. Which, by the way, is a really nice touch. I like to see how long I have left during a download… But if only Cyan could have let me see this on a slightly smaller download.

The UruLive.Live.3.504 update is around 475MB… Ouch. There better be some darned good bug fixes and new content! Am I right? (Maybe some rewards for completing the two new Eder Ages? Hint, hint!)

Oh, and I also made a new category for Uru Live… Hope I get to use it!

It’s Vista Time!

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Been debating on this for a while… Do I get Vista now or wait? On the one hand, it’s new and potentially buggy and it could be good to wait until they have a few patches published for it. This is, of course, a problem with all new OSes. May I direct all the anti-Microsoft naysayers to Apple’s Macintosh OS X 10.0 release? I rest my case.

On the other hand, is there any REAL reason to wait to buy Vista? We’re going to need it eventually. It’s a major stride in Windows computing on so many levels, and if you’re a gamer, you’ll eventually need it for that elusive DirectX 10. Vista is pretty. Vista is secure. Vista is stable… From a technological standpoint, behind the scenes, Vista has changed so many things on so many levels that I can’t even begin to list them. If I wait to buy it, will the price go down? Well, Windows XP never did. If I wait to buy it, will it be more secure and more bug-free? Yes. Yes, it will. However, it will still be the same base Vista with patches applied… Whether you wait and get Vista later, or whether you get Vista now, it will ultimately be the same darned thing. Base Vista with patches applied after installation.

There’s also the matter of all the different versions… Obviously, Ultimate is the grand pinnacle of Windows Vista features. Being the l33t computer geekwad wolfdog that I am, I could never naturally settle for anything less. I had quickly taken a look at the Academic version, but it’s merely a relabeled Home Premium, and obviously nowhere near my mark. So! Vista Ultimate… Full or Upgrade?

Full is more expensive, of course. There’s more code to include on the disc than there would be if you were upgrading from XP. However, the Upgrade version requires that you install, register, and activate XP before you can install Vista (and register and activate). Extra time and I may not have access to XP. I honestly don’t WANT access to XP anymore. My copy was, sadly, somewhat less than legally obtained, being an OEM version off eBay. My authentication key was marked invalid when Microsoft mass-invalidated most, if not all, OEM keys due to illegal distribution. In short, I don’t want to mess with installing XP.

So no Upgrade! Next is OEM or Retail? Hmm. Well, I was reading some technical blogs a few days ago and the general consensus is that OEM versions are specifically for high profile computer manufacturers who can provide technical support for their customers. As such, there is no Microsoft tech support included with the OEM version. In addition to that, OEM versions will lock themselves to the hardware configuration of your computer and only allow you to activate it once for some dumb reason. This is much like what I have to go through to legally activate my copy of OEM XP now. It’s a pain, and I don’t want to do it. To top it all off, OEM discs only include either the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version. Not both.

For Retail, you get tech support (which, you have to admit, is a nice option to have, even if you know your way around your computer better than they do), the ability to reinstall and activate as many times as you want (provided it’s only on one computer), and you get both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions on the disc at the same time, which would be incredibly useful in the future when 64-bit processors become more commonplace.

So the verdict is in: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Full Retail… And what a tounge twister that is. In a way, it sounds… Almost profound to say!

To bring a point to this post, I just bought Vista on Amazon today, along with two 1GB SD cards from Newegg. One for the Wii, and one for an awesome Vista feature called “ReadyBoost” which, basically, uses flash memory as a temporary addition to page files for virtual memory. Hey, for 9 bucks a card, you can’t really go wrong!

Also, if I may, I shall direct you to a blog article about why Vista seems to use so much physical RAM. I’ve known this for a long time, but I thought I’d post it for any anti-Vista snobface that comes by and starts tossing out outdated, disproven reasons about why Vista is such a nasty operating system. Essentially, Vista uses all the memory in your computer in anticipation for what you might do, based on what you load and use the most. When a program needs memory, Vista will give it to them without a second thought. It’s not at all that Vista hogs all the RAM and leaves everyone out in the cold… It’s making fair use of all available RAM and dealing it out when others need it. Like the article says, unused memory is wasted memory. It’s a good thing that Vista uses all the memory like it does. If you don’t believe me… Feel secure in the fact that OS X does this, too. So let’s see… Vista RAM hog claim debunked, the “ohmygosh Microsoft is spying on me” DRM claim debunked. Anything else?

(Yes, Microsoft seems to have copied from Apple again. (Actually, they haven’t at all, but whatever.) Boo hoo. Aren’t you Apple zealots the ones who want to abolish software patents? You know that would mean it would be completely legal to copy and rip off anyone and everyone as much as you want, right? Please shut up and think about what you say very carefully.)

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the DRM in Vista is there because the movie industry wouldn’t allow Microsoft to label their OS as high-definition capable. The DRM that lets you watch HD content is the same that’s on Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and even your precious Mac OS X. If you’re wondering about the motherboard-locking DRM? The one that Vista could bind itself to? First, please read that sentence again. Vista COULD bind itself to. WILL Vista bind itself to hardware on the hardware level? Maybe. Maybe not. IS Vista using it? No. But guess what? Apple has had this for a very long time already. Did you know that? Maybe you did. It’s called EFI. Is it currently used by Apple to lock the OS to the hardware on the hardware level? No. Could it in the future? Maybe. Maybe not. Does anyone care? No. It’s Apple. Apple can do no wrong. If Apple did start using it that way, they would rationalize it away. What would happen if Microsoft started using what Apple already has at their fingertips? Hmm. As you can see, the mere thought of what Microsoft MIGHT just MAYBE POSSIBLY use is setting everyone on edge. Why? No reason. They just hate Microsoft and love Apple.

Disclaimer: Any and all level-minded Apple user is hereby excluded from the generalized term “Apple zealot”. This includes, but is not limited to, Capella and Iaian7. All others please apply within for an application to be listed as an Apple fan who doesn’t go out of his way to make dumb-butt comments about the competition.

10 Mistakes that Will KILL a Forum

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10 Mistakes that Will KILL a Forum [seorefugee.com]

Yup yup. This guy knows his stuff. I could list a few places that could benefit from actually following this list, but for the sake of privacy and decency, I’ll just let people know that I could list a few places that could benefit from this and let you go “hmm, now who could he be talking about”, and then you’ll form lists yourselves… And, hopefully, you’ll be someone in a position to fix it. Probably not, though. I’ve been trying to get people to change some stuff for a looong time. Alas, nobody listen. Oh well.

But, in particular, pay attention to Mistake Number 2, 4, 6 and 10.

Sheesh…

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Allow me to be perfectly blunt here. Uru Live has gone… well… Live, and the beta is over, and people now have to pay for the service. That doesn’t affect me, since I subscribed to GameTap the moment I was accepted as a beta tester. I figured that then was as good a time as any to try out what else GameTap had to offer.

Anyway, the GameTap service is $10 a month for a library of quite possibly over 1000 games, plus one MMO. MMOs usually cost $15 a month. So that means for people in countries with the GameTap service, you get an MMO for $10 a month, plus so many other great games at your fingertips that you just can’t find time to play them all. The savings you have here is just… incredible.

For countries without the GameTap service, you can still buy Uru Live for $10 a month and when GameTap does eventually get released for your area, you’ll get the other games for no additional cost. So even without the hundreds of games in GameTap, you’ve still got access to an MMO for $10 a month. Cheaper than any other MMO of that caliber. (Personal preferences aside, Uru Live is a high caliber MMO when compared to the rest.)

But get this… people are complaining that Uru Live is too expensive to buy without the GameTap service. You must not want it badly enough… You must not be aware of how much the price norm is for these types of games… You must not be aware that $10 per month for a game that is constantly changing is a great deal, even without GameTap.

I remember this all happening when Uru Live was being run by UbiSucks… Er… I mean UbiSoft, sorry… The estimated price for subscription was going to be $10 to $15, but it was going to be as cheap as possible and so many people were ticked off at the “astronomical price” that it was sickening. Everyone wants everything for free… Let’s completely forget that this is Cyan you’re talking about. Quite possibly the best company on the planet, and you yourselves have said it, but you’re not willing to pay them for their game? There’s a word for people who act like this… Hmm… What could it possibly be? Oh, yeah!

HYPOCRITES!

Warcraft Suspension

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In what is being coined as “The Jaina Proudmoore Incident“, nearly 100 Horde players have been temporarily suspended for 72 hours for exploiting. Apparently, Blizzard saw the same group of people repeatedly killing the game character Jaina Proudmoore for money, and saw fit to dish out some discipline. Harsh? Maybe.

The way I see it, repeatedly killing something isn’t my idea of a fun time. I don’t repeatedly kill monsters, unless a quest orders it, and I don’t repeatedly kill Horde players, unless they simply don’t know when to quit throwing their lives into the claws of an angry Druid.

But this is akin to repeatedly killing Thrall, or repeatedly killing the Archdruid, or repeatedly killing the King of Stormwind. Jaina is a high-level quest giver. People actually need her to finish tasks. An instance of “griefing” would be repeatedly killing a quest-giver for whatever reason. Granted, the suspension is reportedly because of “exploitation” instead of “griefing”, the end result is still the same. Players were repeatedly killing a high-level quest-giver. Killing her once wouldn’t have been much of a problem… Killing her twice? Not so much, either. But they were obviously killing her enough times to warrant an investigation by Blizzard. Someone reported the activity or Blizzard themselves noticed the events.

Needless to say, the suspended players are in an uproar about how unfair Blizzard is since they are being temporarily barred from playing a game that they pay for. Boo hoo. Are you saying that none of the 100 Horde players involved ever even momentarily thought that what they’re doing might be a little excessive?

Well, I guess you have 3 days to reflect on what you did, eh? 3 days. Wow. Blizzard is a demon for robbing you of your game time for 3 whole days because you were breaking rules. Oh my. 3 whole days! What ARE you going to do during this time? Oh, probably whine about it the entire time, am I right? Then, once the suspension is up, you’re going to go right back to playing. You might even quit in an effort to show Blizzard the error of their ways! Well, good riddence. Blizzard now has only 6,999,999 active players. Nobody will miss you. So I suggest that you stop making such a huge deal about this and just patiently serve your time in the brig. Who knows? You might even walk outside in those 3 days!

Until Uru… Blargh!

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Chucker and I usually don’t see eye-to-eye on several (if not all) things. Heck, I usually don’t see eye-to-eye with everyone on several (if not all) things. With the exception of my existing friends, of course. I don’t have a whole lot of friends because I’m incredibly outspoken and not afraid to say “hey, you know what… that’s wrong”. As Dr Seuss says, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” If people decide to distance themselves from me because I’m just being me, then so be it. They don’t deserve to be a friend of mine.

Anyway, that’s not what I’m going to talk about… That’s an entirely different topic. What I’m talking about is that I found a post on Chucker’s site that sums up every feeling I have about this stupid Until Uru debacle, what “fans” are saying, and basically every feeling I have about the entire state of what Cyan and the community are doing right now.

Apparently, there have been mistakes by everyone during this tirade. Cyan seems to have misled people into thinking Until Uru was going to stick around for a while, and some fans believe they’ve been the sole force behind the Until Uru movement and that Cyan’s too arrogant to recognize it. (This is why I left the community. Too much arrogance from everyone. I may return when it’s changed, and it seems to maybe have become a tiny bit better, but it’s still pretty rampant.)

I didn’t at all enjoy Until Uru, so of course I’m going to be a little biased, but everyone needs to shut up and suck up. The real Uru Live is around the corner, and Until Uru has served its purpose. Stop complaining and whining about Cyan doing their job and focus that Myst-honed problem-solving brain on trying to figure out a way to play the real thing.