Us and the Boy
Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.
Randal turned one today, his sister turned 3 last Saturday. Time keeps rolling by. He’s got teeth coming in, is crawling like crazy, probably be walking before ya know it, and soon the babble will be proper words.
Get ready world, cause here he comes.
Cool New Shades
Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.
Got my necromancer fancy Norn armor AND some Asuran shades. How cool is she? She’s also finished the Canthan protector title and such. There’s a new update coming around the corner (Guild Wars turns 4, and I turn 32). It involves pets, so I’ve been leveling up my Jingle Bear. Tried to make him a Dire Jingle Bear, but came out a Hearty anyway.
Felicia Day has some good posts about using Twitter. As a Twitter novice anything can help. I do have a Twitter account, but frankly I don’t use it much. Mostly I watch my personal web celebrities, who are more like blogging buddies than anything else. That and keeping track of my wife when she gets in the mood to tweet.
Elonian Master Cartographer 99%
Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.
Almost there. This is the last cartographer title that I need to get. The problem is that the last 1% is always the hardest. What saved me on the last two titles were quirks that let me finish up without scraping everything. I don’t think I’ll get the luxury this time.
Hopefully I can get the house cleaned up, so I can spend some time working on this.
Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States! Thank goodness, the gods, the Lord Almighty, and the noodly appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster… whomever you like! I greatly enjoyed his speech after he was sworn in, particularly this part:
“For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”
Christmas Clothes (Norn Armor)
Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.
Wintersday has come and gone. I spent some gold and gussied up Satine in some Wintersday clothes. Guess I found some use for all the gold I’ve been hoarding. Got loads of holiday consumables that hopefully will last me a while. Even got to play with a guildmate and friend for a bit.
Haven’t played much this week as the children needed lots of watching. Seems like I barely sat down and it was time to get some sleep. Then I woke up and it started all over again… go figure.
Christmas went well too. The kids had fun and I think my wife enjoyed herself. Good gifts all around. I even got a Nintendo DS with the one game I longed for, Chrono Trigger. I’ve been playing during my lunch break and life is good.
Here’s a reprint of an article talking about the success of Guild Wars in the face of subscription based MMOs. Its the no subscription that got me playing this game, but it is the design philosophy that has kept me playing. It is not a grind-based game. You don’t have to play hours on end to find enjoyment in it. Without the subscription you can also stop playing for a while, get a few things done in the real world, and not feel like you’ve wasted money while not playing.
Thank you ArenaNet!
From Digg:
“Our design goal when creating ‘Guild Wars’ was this: ‘If I’ve got 30 minutes before dinner, will I have fun playing this game?’” says Strain.
