Headstart begins today, don your-

Functional and fun.

And even though I’ll be in line for about 5 hours, it’s all chill. In the end, I’ll be racing much faster than my other guildmates, who shall soon experience the fury of my inexplicably fast grind.

 

It’s super-effective!

I CAN EXPERIENCE IT

I laughed some when I saw that pop up, figured it needed to be archived and shared.

Actually, there might be a real, although mostly irrelevant, effect going on. If you have enough tears on the internet, a flame starts. (Cue the pun drums.) This property is often demonstrated on Aionsource, but there was plenty of spontaneous conflagration going on inside of Aion’s twitter feeds and Facebook account after high noon rose with stagnating servers. In the end, very few people will remember this incident, and I graciously accept that most people think like me in acknowledging each launch is probably going to be an hour after the scheduled time. Like my friends love to point out,

“It’s like a DDOS attack every time there’s a launch.”

 

PALTEK HOLDINGS – THE ONE TRUE ENEMY.

Patent law is rarely exciting, but there are a few occasions where business steps into entertainment-business, waving their acquired patents in hopes of acquiring a settlement.

Enter Paltek Holdings, a company that used two acquired patents to get Microsoft to settle over Halo. Now, they’re using those very patents to attack practically every MMO on the market. I kid you not. Blizzard, Sony, Jagex, Turbine and NCsoft are all being filed at.

I would leave the investigation up to you about the details of the patent, but essentially Paltek is using two extremely general patents to extract money out of a genre that has enough competition as is. Hey, they got Microsoft to settle. These other companies will buckle, right? (I might dredge up the patents and analyze them later, but I’m a bit sleepy right now)

Hopefully not. On one end, yes, these companies are businesses and  should go for the cheapest way out, which would probably be a settlement. However, as an entertainment function, there needs to be a clear distinction that games should be unfettered by patents and focus more on intellectual property, much like how the entertainment industry functions. I hope that these cases will be used throughout the history of law to ensure that the sanctity of our pass-time doesn’t have to jump through any more hoops. The ability to transmit and replicate an environment is a common action, after all, yet it has a patent. Should we have to go back to the patent holder to get permission to use one of the basic methodologies in game design? Of course not.

However, the law is slow and thoughtful. We’re going to hear about this case again in a couple of years perhaps, and by then, we might’ve forgotten. It’ll give me time to cool off and ponder, but hopefully Paltek Holdings loses harshly and disintegrates underneath the pressure of their opposition.

http://economy.kansascity.com/?q=node/3863

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/turbine_soe_blizzard_others_sued_patent_infringement

 

The One-Week Construction Job – Guild Management

As OB came to a close, I realized that I was the only one in my group with enough time to be a guild leader. As a result, I’ve been drilling away at potential guild spaces since my current webspace is using an extremely outdated version of MySQL and has no chances of being changed due to being shared with my dad’s stoic, but working, code.

Originally titled Mithril, Paksigue is a casual guild soon to be planted on Azphel. However, we’re not carebears. There’s a certain sub-group of casuals that enjoys the harsh environments of a highly contested cluster, but doesn’t have the numbers to pull any kind of raid on a consistent basis. I personally do not want to manage a business, but I understand that, ideally, the guild leader role requires some administration, effort and altruism in order to keep the denizens happy. My parents work as managers for their respective companies and have been kind enough to pass off this nugget,

“Managing is making people do what they don’t want to do.”

Brrr. Luckily, Aion is a game and people are here on the basis of their own entertainment. I don’t really have to manage people, but rather, manage myself in order for this guild to remain a success. I admit to a lot of faults, mostly spouted from points of frustration and sleepiness, but they’re uninspiring comments nonetheless. Being an overall cool person will be my ticket to success, but as you can tell from the flavor of this blog’s history, I derive humor from sarcasm and rage. Consequently, that makes me an asshole when I’m not funny.

Anyway, enough about management philosophy, here’s the list of things I need to do before launch starts.

• Replace the current Paksigue banner. (Getting a feel for mmoguildsites layout potential.)
• Develop a reasonable criteria for what Paksigue wants in a recruit.
• Be less of a douche, or be hilarious on every turn.
• Work on the comic.

These take precedence over my opinions in the long run. I’m sure all who played OB had a blast or hated it and have since moved on to other games. The internet won’t die if I don’t talk about how much I love crafting and how deliciously solid Aion is.

 

Israphel – Phutanari – Chanter.

That’s me, going into your zergs, pulling the squealing puppy out of the rear end and kicking his ass with my glorious Sailor’s Staff.

Okay, so I only pulled off that feat once, and against an assassin that clearly forgot that poking rear is a way to win.

I’ve been playing a lot. We’re talking about waking up at 9 and playing straight till 2 in the morning. Writing is not my strong suite right now, so bear with me as I remain silent until the beta ends.

 

Lag is a mysterious bastard.

Don’t worry folks, this isn’t another source-worthy bitch-and-moan session. Rather, I am acknowledging the terrible lag now that I have come in contact with it.

When I came home and gave it a whirl, the world chugged to sluggishness. Then, suddenly and miraculously, it fixed itself. For a good six hours, things were flying. Terror struck again and now I’m here, telling you. It’s clear that this issue can be fixed and at some point was fixed like magic, but the source of the lag is clearly coming from some evil entity, rumbling underneath the servers.

Either way, I’m optimistic. It’s not like NCsoft doesn’t know how much shit they’re in if this continues into retail. In the meantime, I need some pictures of Lani to enjoy while the lonely hours pass.

Edit: Holy crap, they fixed it for me.