DM of the Rings Remaster XV: Riddle me This
Our family has two months left to entirely finish the house in time for the baby to arrive. The bathroom is next, then the kitchen, then the laundry room if they have time. The bathroom is not bad, and Lorretta is tempted to keep the vintage façade…except for the moldy grout. The Sims has no good way to show it, but that pink tile was put in nearly a century ago, without ventilation, with only one bathroom to the entire house. That grout is black.
They try to save the tile by removing it carefully, but by the time the fifth one disintegrates in their hands, it’s clear that won’t be happening; this is a reno.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Sims 4 Overthinking: Tradition”

– Shamus, Friday Oct 6, 2006
Continue reading 〉〉 “DM of the Rings Remaster XIV: Boring Distractions”
Lorretta is sinking her money into the house like a gambling habit. First, it was $5,000 for the original quote of fixing the back bedroom.
Then, she discovered rot in the second bedroom while taking out the paneling. Another $2500 for the repairs. Then, she had to put carpet in all the upstairs bedrooms. She wants to opt for at least mid-tier carpet, since it was how she rationalized continuing with the reno instead of just selling the place. She is out easily $14,000 by now, and she hasn’t even discovered the water heater yet.
At this point, she finally has to face the third bedroom, the former study, which she hasn’t been touching except for to install the carpets. The other rooms have been stripped of their paneling and painted, but the study she saved for last.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Sims 4 Overthinking: The Three Months”

My own suggestion for the 4.0 edition rules: Anyone who quotes Holy Grail during a session should be made to eat their own character sheet.
– Shamus, Wednesday Oct 4, 2006
Continue reading 〉〉 “DM of the Rings Remaster XIII: Let’s Not go There”
So, I have a Sims 4 Overthinking post written and ready for screenshots and posting, but EA has chosen now to force me to ‘upgrade’ to their new EA App (and politely uninstall Origin for me in the process.) I can’t help but picture the purchase screen for a new appliance, like a washing machine, where they offer to haul your old one away if you give them $80. But, instead of charging me $80, they’re just breaking into my house and taking it by force. Gee, thanks.
I’ve known this was coming for awhile, but I had bypassed it in the program files hoping I could put it off. It seems EA is onto this, however, because the bypass I did, and the one many other Sims players were using is no longer functional.
This would usually be a pretty quick thing. I’d be angry for half an hour and try to bypass it, then, once I realized I couldn’t, I’d just sigh and accept my fate, download it and move on. The problem is, my install is a bit special. Most of it is totally fine, but some of my files are a cracked version that it’s going to take me and my husband a week to figure out how to make work with the new launcher.
If I’m not very, very careful, and go slow, I could end up breaking my save games, including, you know, the one I’m working on for this funky thing I get to tell people I do for a ‘job’ now. Thank you guys for sticking around and reading this trash, it’s super cool to be able to tell people I do anything for work. So many years of doctors appointments and going to the bank where I just had to go ‘Uhhh…’ when asked what I do for work, but, no longer! Now I write for the internet! Ha! Huh. Maybe that’s more a ‘gotcha’ in my head.
Anyway, I guess I have a week of shaking my fist angrily at the corporate overlords to look forward to. Oh goody.
So, it’s been nine months since Dad’s been gone, and about seven since I began writing here. This has offered a lot of time to mope and brood, or, you know, ‘think’, whatever you want to call it. In that time, I’ve had a lot of writing ideas. Everything from games I’ve had thoughts on, to projects I’ve been working on; D&D, commentary, Minecraft, you name it. I’ve had enough material that I could likely kick the site back into at least three or four posts a week, but…Houston, we have a problem.
See, there’s sort of an elephant-in-the-room issue that makes talking about, well, anything feel redundant and repetitive. I want to talk about my love-hate relationship with Stardew Valley, my reasoning for having a thousand ‘smart’ devices, my favorite children’s MMO, and every issue I have with Wizards of the Coast. But, at the end of the day, what I have to say about all those things has a common denominator which would get old to write about very, very fast.
Everything is a monopoly, and every creative decision I want to talk about boils down to money, not actual people. People are interesting, they make independent decisions and sometimes bonkers bad ones. Nuance and storytelling, ignorance and narrow world views, those are things we can talk about. Why CEO #34 made a piss-poor decision that will only really hurt employees and consumers and land him with a four week paid holiday isn’t fun and snappy conversation, it’s fucking depressing.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Money”
Do you like electronic music? Do you like free stuff? Are you okay with amateur music from someone who's learning? Yes? Because that's what this is.
No, game prices don't "need" to go up. That's not how supply and demand works. Instead, the publishers need to be smarter about where they spend their money.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
A music lesson for people who know nothing about music, from someone who barely knows anything about music.
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
A video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.