Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Soapbox: There’s No Crying In Football!!!

By

On May 21, 2012

In Soapbox

I love how Greg Lloyd put it (regarding Football): “It’s a violent freaking sport!” I don’t understand what it is with players these days demanding changes to the game because of the injuries. It’s almost as if players these days are shocked that there are so many injuries in football.

HELLO!!! McFLY!!!!!

Who ever said football was a safe sport??!! They knew what they were getting into when they signed those contracts. These players are paid ridiculous sums of money so I’m sure excellent doctor’s are well within their budget. Do any of these players remember the great players before them?? How many games did Brett Favre play while injured; now players are leaving the game for a jammed thumb! Some bumps and bruises, jammed fingers, sprained ankles and a few minor concussions never stopped Joe Montana, Gale Sayers or Walter Payton.

If you don’t want to get hurt then don’t play football because concussions are part of the business. Every job has something about it that you don’t like. There is no such thing as a utopian job. I love football. I love to see the big plays just as much as I love to see the big hits. I love the hear the clash of helmets at the snap but the more players that cry over a broken finger the more I want to start watching hockey instead.

If these players are worried about the state of their livelihood after they are done playing professional sports then perhaps they should sit down and have a chat with an ex-marine or a Vietnam vet. Maybe they should pay a visit to Arlington National Cemetery and see what those guys have to say about their choice of vocation in life.

I’m sure you all know what I have to say to all those pansy NFL players … Buck Up, Sally!!!!

/end soapbox

I Miss Quake (and LAN Parties)

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On May 18, 2012

In Gaming, General Cogitation

Everyone playing Diablo III has sparked many nostalgic conversations about the days of Diablo II thrashing LAN parties. Diablo II wasn’t always the pivotal game for face smashing; Quake and Unreal Tournament were often the games I played at LAN parties for destroying faces.

All this talk of LAN parties and Quake has me wondering if people still have LAN parties? Or has the MMO genre eliminated the need to have everyone in the same room consuming ridiculous amounts of calories from pizza, chips and Mt Dew? I hope not because there was something about getting a group of friends together, in the same room, to destroy faces and laugh at newbs. I do find it ironic how those of us that were labeled geeks were considered to be anti-social when the primary attraction of going to a LAN party was to socialize, but I digress.

I was attending 1-2 LAN parties a year between the time I finished school and moved to Ohio. Granted they weren’t the kind of LAN parties that lasted 36 hours. Usually we would all end up leaving at 1 or 2 in the morning hopped up on adrenaline and caffeine.

What are some of your fond LAN party memories?

Biggs On: Diablo III

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On May 16, 2012

In Biggs On, Gaming

This post is probably a bit premature and perhaps I will be writing a retraction in the near future but I thought I would express my impressions and concerns about Diablo III. I’m sure any of my gaming friends reading that first statement are probably surprised by the subtext it creates about my impression of Diablo III.

Generally I feel like Diablo III is the bored man’s game. Granted I have never played any of the previous iterations of Diablo, and I have spent the past 6+ years playing MMO’s exclusively. Perhaps the pace of WoW and The Old Republic have created an expectation that is counter to the pace of Diablo. I am so accustomed to using both hands to play a game that I find myself trying to find something else to do while I am frantically clicking the left and right mouse buttons.

I think the mouse is part of the problem. I’m actually not a big fan of the mouse. In WoW and TOR I only really use the mouse to adjust the camera angle, beyond that I try to do everything with the keyboard. Click to move is pretty annoying and one of the reasons why I couldn’t get into other MMOs that used that mechanism for movement; then again that probably just stems from my preference of the keyboard over the mouse.

I do think it’s visually stunning. The graphics are really slick and the carnage from killing a mob (or mobs) makes Diablo III a great way to relieve stress … in a sadistic, masochistic way. There have been a few times when the slaughter that resulted from a new ability had me laughing maniacally, and I’m sure the gore only gets better as the levels get higher.

Perhaps as I level more my impression will change, but at this point I feel like I can read a book and just blindly click my way to level 60. I am pretty far behind in the Game of Thrones series …

The MMO Times: The Rapid Left Click Edition!

By

On May 16, 2012

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Issue 32

The launch of Diablo III and TERA has made for very little information to share lately. I haven’t tried TERA primarily because I have enough games to play that I don’t need another one. Now that Diablo III is out and Aion is F2P I now have to decide when I want to play either those games, WoW or Old Republic.

I only have a couple links to share with this issue but I didn’t want to wait much longer on posting them. I may even be running the risk that these links are old news already. Either way, if you need a break from Diablo III, or you need something else to do while you are frantically clicking your mouse, check out some of the latest information about MechWarrior Online and some interesting new MoP features.

Read More

We’re All Geeks – We Should Embrace It

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On May 2, 2012

In General Cogitation

I remember back in high school (which has been just over 10 years ago) it was common for me to be labeled as a geek or nerd. It’s funny how the times have changed. I don’t know if kids today are still being labeled as geeks but what is funny is that really, we’re all geeks.

← Granted we all don’t look like this guy, but that’s because this is the stereotype that use to represent a geek. I personally believe that it is no longer derogatory to be a geek and I think you will find there are many that agree. I’m sure you have even heard of a few popular geeks.

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App Spotlight: SWTOR Tools

By

On May 1, 2012

In App Spotlight

I found another app that I have been enjoying. This one is going to be for a pretty specific audience though. Obviously you will need to have an iPhone and/or iPad (I’m not sure if this is available for non-iOS devices) and you will need to be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you are neither of these then you probably won’t find this app very useful. If, on the other hand, you are a total iPad geek (*raises hand*) and you love playing SWTOR, then I highly recommend spending the $0.99 on this app! The app includes updated information on all companions, classes, skill calculators and datacrons.

The screens for classes and companions is purely informational. There is an overview and descriptions of each advanced class, so its kind of handy if you are still trying to decide what to roll or what advanced class to pick. The nice thing about the screens for the companions is that it is one of the few sources I have found that actually list the companions in the order in which you will receive them. Obviously it also briefly summarizes the information provided in the codex. It will show you armor type, primary skills and which gifts they prefer.

The skill calculator screen is probably the best part of this app, and the place where I can waste most of my time just goofing around. You will get to choose any of the advanced classes and construct your build just like you would do if you were at TORHead’s skill calculator. The best part is you can save the build to reference again later and you can save multiple builds for multiple characters.

A recent update has made the datacrons screen much more useful. This screen not only will show up what datacron (or matrix crystal) exists on each planet but, when you tap on an item in the list it will provide a text explanation of where to find the datacron. I do wish there were video links because trying to find the datacron using text descriptions is confusing. I think the part I like most about the datacrons screen is that you can load a saved character (from the skill calculation screen) and you can check off which datacron you have for each of your toons.

My iPad has always predominately been a business tool (and a testing guinea pig for my own apps) but this app has made it a handy gamer tool (well, at least for SWTOR). I would really like to see similar apps for other MMOs, like World of Warcraft (I don’t find the armory app appealing because I don’t always have my authenticator with me if I want to log in when I am away from my computer).

SWTOR Tools should be available for download from the iTunes App Store for $0.99.

Enjoy!

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