Spouse Aggro

Let’s get to it.  You are of either one or the other (if you are a combination of both, write your own blog post so I can link it!) Understand that you can also be one or the other at different times, this ain’t no concrete rule:

1) A role-player: This does not mean that you go around going “..thus thou and thee!” all the time. This means that you dive right into the game, all of it. This means that you love to explore and discover. You just log in and see what happens, with no particular agenda. Sure, you might log in wanting to do a particular thing, but don’t care if that thing gets sidetracked or pushed off for the time being. Leveling isn’t that big of a deal, and you like to read quest text, usually. You will talk to strangers and might or might not have a guild. You don’t use walk-throughs or mods, and never use a website unless you think a quest or item is broken.

2) A rule-player: This does not mean that you never break rules. This means that you jump right into the game, as far as what the game has laid out for you. You might raid or grind XP. You log in to check on your guilds agenda. Sure, you might log in and goof off for a bit, but can grow bored quickly if there is nothing planned. If there are levels left to achieve, you feel you haven’t even begun the game yet, and you will usually skip quest text. You will talk to strangers once they join your guild. You use walk-throughs, mods, and frequent many of the best websites for information.

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So I’m off to Wal-Mart as part of a list of errands.  I, of course, get bewildered upon entering the store (the massive piles of crap and totally weird people always bedazzle me) and forget what the hell I am doing there.

I count 8 Wii’s for sale, have a quick day dream about getting them all and selling them on EBay at X-mas.

Look at the new boxed PC’s for sale…they’re getting SOOOO CHEAP. 800 bucks gets ya a quad core with 6 gigs ram, 650 gig hard drvie, decent sound and a monitor. Throw in 200 for a graphics card and you’ll be fine.

Notice how quiet the store is because all the bratty kids are in school.

Get mildy depressed at all the crap one store can put out. Hell, that one FAMILY can put out.

Since I couldn’t remember what I came in for, I grabbed a copy of “Twilight” for Leala. That’s right, for Leala. This coming from a guy that is not embarrased to be buying condoms, bananas and toothpaste all at the same time. I told her if she makes me watch it I will blog about it to get my revenge. But let me explain…

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Oh DOMO, you cute lil’ shit.

I log into you, poke around for an average of 30 minutes to one hour, I’m getting used to your fun lil game-play and your neat animations. I like the pets, and enjoy some of the story and Cinematic parts.

But, for fucks sake, let me break it down for you:

In WASD mode, W means FORWARD. WALK forward. Ok, got that down.

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Get off work, go to a restaurant so I don’t have to fix supper when I get home. Me and Leala talk about her day.

All night at work I was amped up, talking to people about their new puppies, marveling at the clueless nature of a new puppy owner.  Amazing to me when people just buy and don’t think.

Get home, give the dogs a treat to sit so they calm a bit. They sit on the floor at our feet while we have party tacos and burritos. Suddenly, Roy’s head is poking up in between us. He didn’t seem to be begging, but just was there.

Take a bath. Wash my face and the smell of puppy pads and dirty change off my hands.

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Spouse Aggro #71
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:28:00 GMT [download/play]

“Two kids in a candy store.”

The Highlights from show 71!

Here’s the deal: 10 topics, 3 minutes a piece. Leala picks a random number and keeps time. We miss a lot and hit on target a lot. Try it sometime, it’s hard to get it all in there in 3 minutes.  I seriously messed up the VG topic, being that I had been reading about it for the last week and it clouded my brain with visions of numbers and pink dresses.

1) Spellborn Open Beta

2) Vanguard RMT

3) Ether Saga Open Beta

4) Mabinogi Anniversary

5) Ryzom live events, patches!

6) WoW meetup  – http://www.meetup.com/armory/

7) Runes of Magic begins!

8 ) Darkfall exists.

9) DOMO and gay marriage

10) Free Realms, still ignoring us.

Here is Tipas blog, a good place for Spellborn stuff (besides mine, of course.)

And here is Saylahs blog, a good place for ROM stuff.

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The Turkeys

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Spouse Aggro Vidcast #13: The Turkey Awards, Evil SOE, and some tips for protesting RMT. from Spouse Aggro on Vimeo.
In the first part of the show I hand out huge gold statues to MMO’s that have captured my attention. Here are the categories:

Best Customization
Best Graphics
Best Lore
Best Housing
It Just WORKS
Best “Fluff” Items
Best Game

Remember, although I asked for input, these are most of the games that I have played over the last year. For example, although I played WAR, I didn’t like it so I just left it off the nominees.

In the second part of the show I point to a very particular group of players: those that have deep hate for SOE and have talked (for the last 10 years) about “protesting,” “boycotting,” or otherwise trying to send a message to SOE about how they feel.

If you play other games, take out SOE and put in place your favorite game developer. Also, take out Smed and put in the boss of your favorite company. It all applies the same.

A lil ranty, a lil rave-ish. All meant in good fun.

Now, go log IN!

Beau Turkey

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Want to help me decide on which games deserve this dorks award for “Best ____________ ? ”

Go to this poll I had to make because WordPress is weird ’bout polls, and help me decide. If you have any suggestions, let me know. I might add on some categories. I will be filming this Vidcast within the week..ish.

Beau

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As I walked the dogs this morning (beautiful, foggy, no one around) I thought about people that have emailed me, added comments to my blogs, or posted on my forum posts.

I have been called many things, from a “hard core raider” to a “fanboy” of a million different games/game companies. Being that the one constant in all these comments is me, I have a good idea of which of these ideas are true and which are false.

Think about your co-workers, or some of your aquaintances (not your best friends, just slight buddies.) They probably all have an idea about you, from what you do after work to how you interact with people outside of their relationship with you. These ideas come from very slight (and sometimes not so slight) cues like hairstyle, music choices, the fashions you wear.

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Dogs teach us so many things. Mostly good, some bad.

If you just watch them interact with each other (having two can almost always be better than just one) you will learn so much about their behavior, and about how we can use this behavior in our lives.

I’ll re-introduce my dogs, in case you forgot.

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Ok, such a basic thing makes my mind whirl. So I am going to talk really simply for MY sake, not yours.

Here are my arguments for it, or at least against the standard sub model:

1) No, that 15 dollars a month is not just paying for “access” to the game, nor is it paying for “time in game.” You are RMT’ing, right now, if you pay a sub. You paid 50 bucks for a BOX, which is the only thing NOT virtual. RMT is the trade of real money for virtual items.

IF you only paid “for access” (airhead on the Massively comments section) then what does access entail? The avatar? Oh, but you HAVE to have that, right. Ok. How about the avatars newbie stuff (weapons, armor, space ship?) How bout that newbie horse you might get, or that newbie special item for being you know, a newbie?

Just because those items are almost standard within MMO’s does not mean that they are a law in MMO’s. If anything, this argument of   “I ain’t RMT’ing, I am paying for timed access…” simply shows how flawed and silly the “standard” model is. After all, I get just “timed access” (there are still limits to limitless amounts in MMO F2P games…after all, servers must shut down and they can do whatever they want with my time) for FREE in a F2P game. You are paying 15 DOLLARS for it. HA!

Anything above (depending, of course, on the game) MOVING is a luxury item. Being that there are no rules at all (unless player created) on how you enjoy something like a video game (Sally enjoys the scenery while walking, Bob enjoys killing dragons) than there are no rules for what has VALUE. Paying real money for something MIGHT create value, but you still do not own that sword, not if you paid for it with your monthly sub OR with a cash shop. You have paid for the USE of that sword, just like the guns at the lazer tag place (that smells like urine.)

You might value that cool sword, but I think it is poop.

So, you, standard sub model, are just a form of RMT’er.

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Second Life, Lindens….I address you:

The recent rumors (I saw it posted, but haven’t read the official word yet) about moving all mature rated content onto it’s own island got me more excited than those mature rated content manufacturers at a porn convention.

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Spouse Aggro Vidcast #12: LIVE events! from Spouse Aggro on Vimeo.

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I don’t know what to say.

Yes, yes, it isn’t THAT big of a deal, but it certainly gives me hope.

Essentially, the new Ryzom team put out a new patch today and it shows that they are not only working on new stuff, but are attempting to bring Ryzom up to “modern standards.” In case you didn’t know, Ryzom is a skill based system set in a sci-fi fantasy type world called Atys.

Atys is a giant rootball, and the four races all look very unique. They ride around on elephant/horsey things, and fight giant bugs in the underground areas of the world.

It’s great, trust me.

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Recently I have been spending more time in MMO’s than normal. Granted, I think a lot of my “time” is spent on activities that do not require constant button-mashing (exploring, role-playing, crafting, fishing..) but I have been running across some nice adventures, too.

And some very nice people! In a game like Mabinogi, it’s hard to guess some one’s age. After all, we are all playing lil’ children, and I have been surprised constantly at how nice most of the players are. I really believe this has a lot to do with the lack of raiding or any real “end-game” type scenarios that place people in a non-stop rush.

In Ryzom it is a similar deal: someone that has a higher level than you in one of the skill trees can always try out another skill along with you. For example, I might run across a better swordsman than me, but I take the turn with the sword while they work on their healing skill. Or cooking. Or campfire making!

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Spouse Aggro #70
Mon, 9 Mar 2009 20:44:00 GMT [download/play]

“Mabinuubies, Home Games and Double Dorks!“

The Highlights from show 70!

* 0:00-32:00: Beau shows Leala a bit of Mabinogi, his new current favorite MMO. Leala has a stroke while trying to wrap her head around the concepts of a F2P game, and Beau strains to convince Leala that the game is fantastic. Trust him.

*33:30-48:17: The Great Couple of Dorkdom have a discussion about Home Games, or games that a player will always hold within their hearts, much like a Celine Dion song..

*48:26-1:18:44: Double Date! Beau and Leala interview Augustina and Heyoka, and make a few fart jokes while they’re at it.

*1:19:00-1:32:00: What did we play this week? GAMES, fool. We give a rundown.

The music from the show is brought to you from the band Metric. The song is called “The Twist.” Very sexah!

Here is the Onion video Beau mentions. THE VIDEO IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK, BUT IS FUNNY AS H E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS.

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The Turkeys

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I think it can be done just as well as in a “normal” game.

I am going to use Mabinogi as my first guinea pig, being that the game has as much depth as any game as I have ever played.  It has everything I normally love in a game, but the graphics and art style still take some getting used to. But that is the challenge, isn’t it? To take something that is make believe and to see if I can get it to feel more, well, real.

The more I play some of the better F2P games the more I find that the myths about them are well, mostly myth. There are so many things people have issues with, and it is obvious that many of the haters have played none or very few of them. In recent discussions on the Vanguard forums, some players talked as though all free play games “forced” you to spend money in the cash shop. This is not only false, but if you do decide to spend some money, the same amount you pay for a typical subscription will get you not only more fun, but more types of fun that you can customize.

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Spouse Aggro VIdcast #11 from Spouse Aggro on Vimeo.

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I have been telling people for a while that F2P’s are quickly coming up the quality ladder. That market and those developers just have a knack for it. Now, I am not saying that the bulk of freebies are currently at that quality level, but seeing a game like Ether Saga Online really makes you wonder how amazing the games are going to be in a very, very short time.

Remember Dragons Lair, the old video game that let you “play” through a cartoon? Basically, you just hit a series of triggers and you would move on to the next spot. But now, these games really look like cartoons, but play like MMO’s.

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