Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 17, 2010

Filed under: Column 51 comments

 Experienced Points:
That Game I Should Have LikedPrevious Post

Next PostShamus Plays: WoW #9: No Murloc, No Wedlock 

The latest installment is up, but I forgot to link it on Wednesday.

This series is an interesting experiment. I joke about it being “fanfiction”, but I think it’s actually true. This really is fanfiction, even more so than my Lord of the Rings Online or my Champions Online series. In those other stories, I stuck pretty close to the game. I made up dialog, but that’s about it. The rest of it was simply a transcription of the in-game activity. (Which speaks poorly of the writers, I guess.) But here I’m making up characters, backstories, and even doing a bit or world-building in imagining the how the demonic realms operate. I was pretty nervous when I set out in this direction, and very worried that I might get picked apart by WoW lore fans, but so far everyone seems happy.

Having played around on the Horde side, I think both the Blood Elves and the Undead would make for great Let’s Play series. The next time I’m having trouble finding an MMO for Shamus Plays, I might come back to WoW.

Interesting news: DC Universe Online is sounding very, very promising. I’m considering that for my next series. It launches in February, although I don’t know if we’ll be done with WoW before then.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Experienced Points:
That Game I Should Have LikedPrevious Post

Next PostShamus Plays: WoW #9: No Murloc, No Wedlock 

51 comments

Spoiler Warning S4E12: Punch Drunk

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 16, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 173 comments

 Spoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
my favorite [noun] on the CitadelPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E13: Cheerleaders and Terrorists 

Link (YouTube)

I know yesterday we revealed that we’d used an editor to change our save. I think this was a good move, but I want to stress that this was an exception and we’re generally not going to change our stance on mods. We went to play games as they came out of the box. I don’t want a big debate over what mods we should use, and when a game bugs out I don’t want people to blame it on the mods we’ve installed.

I really dislike how they handled saves from the previous game. The default setup given to someone without a ME1 save is about the least interesting of the possible choices. And BioWare really should have let you (optionally) pick from the available choices. Kaiden or Ashley? Council live or die? Wrex alive or dead? Rachni Queen free or dead? Anderson or Udina? Letting the player choose at the start of the game would have added replay value.

I guess they were trying to sell copies of Mass Effect 1, but without knowing what those options were or that they even existed, I don’t think there’s any incentive for newcomers to go back and get the original game.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Spoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
my favorite [noun] on the CitadelPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E13: Cheerleaders and Terrorists 

173 comments

Announcement Roundup

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 16, 2010

Filed under: Notices 60 comments

 Reginald Cuftbert Smashed My ComputerPrevious Post

Next PostDowntime: I hope you can read this 

Rather than answer a dozen emails, let me do a kind of announcement roundup thing. And now that I think of it, I should make that the title to this post.

1) Our very own Mumbles has begun a blog, which she has thoughtfully placed on the internet where people can read it. People such as yourself. This means that 75% of the Spoiler Warning crew is now enbloggened. Mumbles does it. Rutskarn does it. I does it. But I have it on good authority that Josh will not be joining our proud cult of rambling blog-makers. But if he does start one, I strongly encourage him to name it “STOP SHOOTING ME DOT COM”. Just saying.

2) Gratitude and thanks to the benefactor who provided a graphics card for me. It’s a Radeon HD 5670. And for those of you who like the acronym stuff: 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCIE 2.0 x16 HDCP with Crossfire who am I kidding nobody reads this crap. I was going to take some pictures of it, but I had work that needed to get done, and so I put it to work straight away. However, the card is red, which is what counts.

3) Stolen Pixels is on hiatus. This might be a long-ish one. I’ll come back to it when I can.

4) Work stopped on Project Hex while I worked on Drawn to Knowledge. We’ll hopefully get back to that after the holidays. For the last three years I’ve worked huge overtime over the holidays, and so I mean to make the most of this one.

5) Not so much an announcement as a question: I have discovered the fun of playing Horde side in WoW. I had the idea of leveling an Orc in the Blood Elf area, because that would be funny. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get there. I thought I’d go take a zeppelin, but none seem to go to Silvermoon. I thought to run there, but the Western Plaguelands are basically impassible at level 1. I’m sure you can get there, but it would be hours of corpse-running. Now that I think of it, I hardly ever see any non-elves in Eversong Woods. I’m guessing that you just can’t get there until you’ve got the levels to make the run? Or am I missing some alternate route?

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Reginald Cuftbert Smashed My ComputerPrevious Post

Next PostDowntime: I hope you can read this 

60 comments

Spoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
my favorite [noun] on the Citadel

By Josh Posted Wednesday Dec 15, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 195 comments

 Spoiler Warning S4E10: Garrus Bueller's Day Off Previous Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E12: Punch Drunk 

It seems that we’ve finally gotten bored with all of the mindless shooting and awesome explosions, so with this episode we’re bringing you very special presentation:

Spoiler Warning: NOBODY DIES

Link (YouTube)

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.

 Spoiler Warning S4E10: Garrus Bueller's Day Off Previous Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E12: Punch Drunk 

195 comments

World of Warcraft: Nitpicks Revisited

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 15, 2010

Filed under: Game Reviews 153 comments

 Fallout: New Vegas - Enter the AnthillPrevious Post

Next PostDC Menu Scroller Online 

Two and a half years ago I wrote up a list of grievances against World of Warcraft. Now the world has been re-worked for the Cataclysm, so I thought I’d revisit that list and see how things have changed.

1. Low drop rates for quest items

Drop rates are now usually at 80% or better. Of course, this is possible mostly due to the fact that they’ve sped up the leveling curve. Blizzard doesn’t need you to kill 200 Murlocs to get from level 10 to 11, so when a quest giver asks you to bring him 20 Murloc heads, you don’t need to worry that 90% of the Murlocs in the world will be inexplicably headless when you loot them.

Conclusion: Fixed. And thank you.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “World of Warcraft: Nitpicks Revisited”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Fallout: New Vegas - Enter the AnthillPrevious Post

Next PostDC Menu Scroller Online 

153 comments

Spoiler Warning S4E10: Garrus Bueller’s Day Off

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 14, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 130 comments

 Spoiler Warning S4E9: Stairway to HeavenPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
my favorite [noun] on the Citadel 

Link (YouTube)

At the top of the episode, we actually tried the assault on the doors like three times, and kept getting killed. We want to keep the show moving, and so Josh tried to avoid playing the game as intended: Crouch behind cover and play peek-a-boo / whack-a-mook for two and a half minutes. That’s really boring to watch, so Josh is a bit more aggressive than is advisable.

And then we stopped to begin the episode, and Mordin cleared the room alone. Sure, it seems odd that the ship’s doctor should be able to rambo his way through waves of enemies. But a more pressing question is: Where the crap was Jacob? I’m not sure why he decided to go on break right at this moment and leave all the work to Mordin, but I’m sure he’ll have lots of time to reflect on his mistake now that he’s never leaving the ship again ever.

EDIT: Oh right, he was with Garrus. Ah well. He’s staying on the ship anyway.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Spoiler Warning S4E9: Stairway to HeavenPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
my favorite [noun] on the Citadel 

130 comments

Drawn to Knowledge: Net Neutrality

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 13, 2010

Filed under: Movies 154 comments

 Richard Feynman: Science and ChessPrevious Post

Next PostMerry Christmas 

Here is my latest in the Drawn to Knowledge series. I have also created a YouTube channel, just for this show.

Link (YouTube)

Share and enjoy. Next time I’ll cover something a little less divisive.

Going into more detail…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Drawn to Knowledge: Net Neutrality”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Richard Feynman: Science and ChessPrevious Post

Next PostMerry Christmas 

154 comments

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