Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Favorited By A Wookie

By

On February 4, 2015

In Geek Canon, Star Wars

I have to share my moment of nerdy personal triumph. Lately I’ve been using Twitter more but mostly to try to elicit responses from celebrities that are often quite vocal on twitter. I’ve been successful a couple of times but the most recent acknowledgement really had my geek ovaries tingling:

wookie-fav

If you haven’t figured it out, Peter Mayhew is the actor that donned the Chewbacca costume in all the Star Wars movies in which he was present. A few weeks ago he was admitted into the hospital with pneumonia and the flu. He was absent from twitter while he was recovering and I was glad to see he had recovered. I did not expect him to actually see my tweet, let alone favorite it.

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

Save Joystiq and Massively!!!

By

On January 30, 2015

In Fulmination, Gaming, General Cogitation

overworked-290x290I am beyond upset with the folks at AOL (who, ironically, haven’t been relevant since the 90s). I just read devastating news on Massively.com that AOL (or some VP at AOL that performed a “Ghostcrawler nerf” to Joystiq’s budget) will be shutting down Joystiq and all its affiliate sites. This includes Massively and potentially WoW Insider (though I have not heard anything officially posted by the WoW Insider staff).

Massively and Joystiq have been my primary go-to sites for gaming news and they are my primary sources for my MMO Times posts. The gaming industry is booming and will only grow bigger as gamers have children gamers (like me). This is a mistake that will have rippling affects, but I guess AOL is use to making ignorant mistakes.

A petition has been started and you should head over there and sign it immediately. There is also hashtags for twitter that you should start using immedately: #SaveJoystiq, #SaveMassively.

Hopefully there is some organization out there that still supports gamers and the gaming industry that might be willing to pick up these sites and not only give us our community back but give the great writers at Joystiq/Massively/etc their jobs back!

Update: Unfortunately WoW Insider is also going away. It is a solemn and lonely moment; however Adam Holisky (writer for WoW Insider) just tweeted this (there is hope):

/endsoapbox

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

MMO Times: Stood in the Fire

By

On January 29, 2015

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Stood In The FireIssue 112: Greetings and welcome to 2015 … oh wait, I’m nearly a month late! It looks like I stood in the fire too long and thus had an epic fail with posting some MMO news! This is what I get for not having good raid awareness. I have learned my lesson. In all actuality, between various family engagements, holidays and fending off every flu and cold virus known to man, I didn’t have the time or the energy to write up my usual posts. I apologize for the lapse in MMO tidings. Hopefully the following list of headlines will make up for it.

PAX South took place recently so there are a few surprises that came out of San Antonio, including some expansion announcements and subscription changes. Blizzard is already working on some new content for the current expansion (I say already but I’ve been so far behind lately I guess it is about time for more content). There is also a limited time, free music download you want to check out as soon as you read this!

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Book Review: City of Heavenly Fire

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On January 26, 2015

In Book Review, Fantasy

City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6)City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

My Rating: [rating=4]
(See this review on Goodreads)

This is probably more of my review of the series than it is this book specifically. The end of a series is always a little bittersweet. You’re exhilarated to see the conflict end for the characters you have grown to love, but you are saddened all the same because the story is over. It’s how I felt at the end of Harry Potter, Eragon and this series.

The good news is, Clare has set the groundwork for an additional series (rumored to take place a few years later but following the adventures of other characters). She has also managed to create intrigue for the prequel series (The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess) which I intend to begin reading soon.

Another technique I noticed Clare seemed to use pretty well was splitting the gender appeal quite well. Since that sounds a little esoteric, let me elaborate. I think she does a great job appealing to both male and female readers. Generally speaking, there is a great balance of the star-crossed romance that often appeal to the ladies and the classic battle of good vs evil for the men. Clare wraps up the story quite nicely and I especially ***SPOILER*** liked Jonathan/Sebastian’s final moments – what a great way to bring an end to his conflict. Simon’s fate was an unexpected twist but it was best for his character, Isabelle and their relationship.

I do have to admit, Clary had this Luke Skywalker destiny laid out for her but I felt like we never really got to see her real potential. We knew she could create new runes and she has the genes of some powerful Shadowhunters, but we never really got to see her fully utilize that potential. I would have liked to have seen more of Clary kicking some demon ass.

Be that as it may, if you are a fan of the supernatural set in the modern world I think you will really enjoy these books.

View all my reviews

WoW: Garrisons [Revisited]

By

On January 12, 2015

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

pax_east_garrison_580I am way behind the curve as I haven’t been able to start playing the expansion upon its release. In fact I’ve probably only been at it for a few weeks with only brief moments to play in the evenings. I have finally hit 100 (on my main toon) just prior to Christmas and so far, I have to say, I’m Addicted to My Garrison! I have already brought two other alts up just far enough to unlock their garrison just so I can check out the different profession buildings. I have been researching guides on how to acquire additional followers or unlock other special easter eggs to make my garrison more unique.

I can’t help but think that Blizzard took a few notes from the companion system in SWTOR, which doesn’t really irritate me as the companions in SWTOR is one of my favorite mechanics of SWTOR. I’m still discovering new hidden treasures of garrisons but here are a few of my favorites:

Follower Missions

Sometimes I log in just to complete missions and send my followers back out on new missions. I have followers on one alt who are almost level 100 but my toon is only a level 93. I’m excited to be able to send my followers on Highmaul missions which has the chance to reward Highmaul gear. It is a little disconcerting that my followers are starting to have a higher iLevel then my main toon but the trade off will be that I can acquire gear without the repair bill. I really don’t like the fact that you can only have 20-25 active followers because I like all my followers. How can I be expected to play favorites and “deactivate” someone??!

Another item on my “follower wish list” is to see visible changes in my follower as I upgrade their gear. A follower with a gear score of 600 should not look exactly the same when their gear score has been boosted up to 645.

The Mine and Herb Garden

This particular mechanic is kind of a double edged sword for me. Every garrison will get a Mine and an Herb Garden, regardless of whether your toon has mining and herbalism. So that means all your toons will have access to their own person stash of herbs and ore; no need to worry about those annoying ninja’s that pilfer your node or herb while you are fighting the nearby mob. You do not need the mining or herbalism skill to harvest herbs from the herb garden and ore from the mine, however you will still need those skills to harvest them outside your garrison. Obviously this marginalizes the mining and herbalism skills; especially if you have sufficient cash to be able to purchase the needed materials to level a crafting skill that would require mining or herbalism.

Stables

This building allows you to “tame mounts” and as an avid mount collector you can imagine my excitement. Granted I have not yet constructed this building as my need for raid gear supersedes my desire for more mounts, however I am currently leveling an alt that will have this building (since mounts are account bound). Based on some of my research it looks like you are limited to specific species and a specific number of mounts but I think it might be a good start to getting some cool mounts.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while because I keep thinking there is more I want to say about garrisons. I really do enjoy this feature of the game. I almost wish they had more to customize, like the homesteads in SWTOR. I also wonder if this swell of excitement will ebb as the expansion moves on and I level more and more alts to unlock their level 3 garrisons. In the meantime I will continue to bask in the glory of my garrison.

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

An Involuntary, Temporary Hiatus

By

On January 4, 2015

In General Cogitation

Greetings, a belated MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We had a lot going on over the past 2 months. We had to prepare the house for guests as we were getting our daughter baptized. As you know from a previous post, I did not enjoy most of the preparation but I’m glad its done now! The rooms look great, just a few blemishes to patch up in a few inconspicuous spots. The down side of all the work we did, we had worn ourselves out so much we made ourselves vulnerable to all the fun cold and stomach viruses prevalent at this time of year. So the weeks following the baptism we were all sick with various cold, cough and stomach bugs.

Then Christmas came and we all went out to my in-laws in Connecticut and that’s when we all caught that nasty respiratory flu that has been going around. BTW, when I say “we all caught it”, I’m not being dramatic. Every person in the house caught it, even poor little Evie. We are all still fighting off the remnants.

So I guess 2014 ended poorly in that we were all sick, but 2015 is starting out pretty good since we are all in recovery. I didn’t make a New Years Resolution because I don’t make New Years Resolutions, I don’t see the point.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

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