(Video Games) Happy Retirement, Andreas Jenike?

 I haven't become a hockey guru, nor have I upgraded anything gaming related in years, but I recently started up NHL19 again and returned to Franchise mode for the Seattle Dragons. 

Before the Kraken were official, I made up the Dragons, to play against the Vegas Golden Knights.  Yes, we're a dynasty.  Yes I sign elite players to max one year deals so they a chance to win the cup, and stay over the league minimum.  And yes, I did sign an inordinate number of Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin players back when we still had partial season tickets. 

Part of the expansion draft for the team seemed to assign me a number of European players afterwards.  No great stats, they never appeared to affect the salary cap, heck I don't think I  can call them up to the NHL, so unless I'm in game manager mindset, their in street clothes in the stands for most of the game.  

This week I picked up some rather decent NHL goalie off of waivers, and sent him down to the AHL farm club, the Boise Ice Drakes   (Yeah, maybe Spud Drakes would have worked better).  

Usually the game stops my roster moves that go over max players or screw up the salary cap, but this time it looks like I automatically released Andreas Jenike, one of those European players,  and the little used 3rd-string goalie.  

To be honest, I don't have the game on hard, so I could remain competitive with him in goal for the Calder Cup with a team full of disgruntled borderline NHL players, and questionable AHL rookies.  Still, I was sad to see him on the Free Agent list... and the poor guys OVR is about 13 points lower than any other goalie.  

I will try to resign the guy if the system doesn't retire him for the 2023/24 season...  If he does retire, he does end up with four rings... and I did dress him for at least the back-up in a couple of finals games.  

 I hoping retirement is not the case, as I've discovered the the real-life Andreas Jenike is still a long-time goalie for the Iserlohn Roosters  in the DEL.

(Review) Haven for Heroes - Port Jervis, New York

 So, the move of my ex-wife and kids to Upstate New York was semi-successful.  The house is still half-full of crap, the kids' social calendars for July are still in Pennsylvania, and one of the cats escaped during the move.  

Case in point:  Millie already had summer engagements and missed most of the moving brouhaha, so when the missing cat showed up at the house and Millie was ready to be shipped up north, we arranged a swap just before I reached the Newburgh exit of the Thruway.  And despite a full day of other tasks to take care of, that meant that after returning Millie and a cat,  I still had enough time to swing into Haven for Heroes in Port Jervis, New York. 

Haven for Heroes is the classic comic book shop of my youth, with all the good and the bad that comes with that.

The store is dominated by comics: long boxes, short boxes, wire racks, and wooden shelves. On the day I was there, it was the focus of all the customers, making it fairly busy. It was an amount of searching that I haven't seen in quite awhile, outside of actual comic conventions. Honestly, there's not too much related to gaming besides a display of mostly D&D 5e, dice, Magic, and Pokemon, but let's cover my normal format.

Location:  Front St is right in middle of downtown Port Jervis.  Street parking with no meters in sight (a huge plus!)  

And yes, since it was a hot-button issue on other reviews, I was greeted, simultaneously, by two staff in the store.  

Cleanliness: It's a cluttered mess, but its a clean cluttered mess.  There's just so much stuff that your classic Warhammer/Pokemon mom might be taken aback. 

But I'll give credit where credit is due, when your action figure case is clean, properly stocked and LIT, I have a bit more faith in operations. 

Miniatures:  Outside a few Warhammer novels, and some antique lead figures stuck away on a corner shelf, nothing. 

Board Games:  A bit surprised that I don't recall seeing any, but the classic shops of my youth grumbled getting Settlers of Catan and Apples to Apples back in the day.  

RPGs: A solid selection D&D 5e, some other random supplements, and an inordinate number of Mayfair DC Heroes modules, which  younger me would have gone ga-ga over. 

CCGs: A solid selection of Magic with a variety of singles, a full case of Pokemon singles as well.  

Accessories: A healthy supply of base level (re: inexpensive) dice, card sleeves, and CCG accessories.  

The Other Stuff: Thirty years ago in worked in a comic shop that did draw in considerable business with Used CDs, so diversification is key.  I just didn't expect this: 

Lord Vader finds your lack of bass disturbing...

Audio equipment, LPs, DVDs, and VHS had a prominent space in the back.

The video game section was quite impressive, running from current Playstation/xBox to Atari/Colecovision, to even older items. 

I forgot how much I missed me some Atari Bowling...

Comics: The bread and butter, is a little haphazard.  I figured out the new releases, but outside of the items on display behind the counter, I found very little priced and even unbagged back issues in the long boxes.

Events: There are a number of tables in the back, and a quick look at their Facebook page has Magic and even Lorcana events through the end of last year (and one Magic event this past May).  Funny thing is I swear I saw pictures of a full table use during an event, and now I can't find it.  

A deviation from what I normally talk about, but I will say this:  They had an honest to God decent sales while I was there, possibly drawing in some of the customers.  Huge fan of a properly organized and specified sale!

Since my blog is 95+% gaming, and since my modern sense of practicality overrides my heavy sense of nostalgia, I'll be force to give Haven for Heroes a solid three out of five gnomes.

Just the fact of having a store that sells games in a town, and does a considerable amount of Magic is a huge boon.  I love the diversification, I love the nostalgia.  But it has it's limits. 

Haven for Heroes is found at 34-36 Front Street - Port Jervis, NY.  Hours are 12-8 Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 Sunday, closed Monday.   They are available online at Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

Going Down the Rabbit Hole with AI

 I was wondering where my November went.  After Fall-In (and the last AAU tournament for the fall), November was supposed to be relaxing with transporting kids to practices and and some weekend work at for the local rec basketball league.  I've blinked and we're already days into December thanks to AI  

I started using AI art generators with the Character Creation Challenge at the beginning of the year and for some on-the-fly art for our ongoing Gamma World campaign.  Depending on model, some of the early attempts were horrible, while others did the characters justice. 

My first attempt at AI Art, Norma Gimblespringer

I've been working with Nightcafe almost exclusively, and the results have been getting better, although it's not sufficient for a game like Gamma World unless the parameter prompts given are really specific.  *Minor spoiler* when the character encounter "living metal" RHA-9,  Nightcafe drew everything except what I wanted, so I simply sketched him in normal and colored pencils.. and I can't draw well.    Still the artwork has progressed nicely and if I ever decide on a paid subscription, I believe Nightcafe can do wonders with character images if I set up a model for each one.  

Chat GPT has been my rabbit hole, creating a vast host of opportunities for scenario development, campaign progression, even "off-table" conversations between characters.  You do need to put in significant data points in each "conversation"  (a continuing series of prompts), and the AI wisely avoids anything lascivious, violent, or harmfu, so handling something like, say, a D&D/Hackmaster campaign might involve some code words that the AI knows acknowledges something outside its parameters, and moves forward.    It's also allowed me an interesting look at "Alternate Timelines" seeing all the angles.  Although I haven't reached Doctor Strange's 14,000,605 possibilities, I have maxed out capacity on two conversations, which means you either summarize the converation and put the essential points in a new conversation to start it off, or start it could with basic data.    The only problems I've really had was the AI's penchant for changing names (usually surnames) and mixing up characters in some dialogue.  

This is Rebecca, a character I had Chat GPT create for my 90's Canadian Call of Cthulhu game.  I plugged the Chat GPT description into NightCafe, expecting a college woman, hair in ponytail, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and long jean skirt.   Apparently cosplay is popular in Medicine Hat, because this is essentially what I got from a rather mundane description.  I did edit some random faces and hands out from around the circle. 

The hope for AI for myself and gaming.  Perhaps some closure on the dream campaigns that will never run.  A little play-by-post or email for structure, but allowing the AI to progress through certain portions with human illogic entered into the algorithm.  

Zork Remembered

Maybe the grumpy old man in me is evolving into some sensitive mess, but some random items just hit you in the feels.  

So when the Vintage RPG Podcast   starts listing Zork books on Instagram,  I got warm and fuzzy feelings about school book fairs.

Zork was a series of text-based adventure games for the PC.  We didn't have a computer in our house until the 2000's so I was at the mercy of friends for forays in the the Underground Empire.

Usually I got eaten by a gue, but I remember (most of) this series of "What-To-Do-Know" books (aka other publisher's "Choose your own adventure" series.

I remember owning/borrowing 1 and 3.  I remember seeing 2 and have no recollection of 4 or anything related beyond that.  

This is '84-85, so a time of the D&D cartoon, and actions figures, of Beastmaster and Conan the Destoryer running non-stop on HBO, but I still hadn't picked up the D&D.  It is a lasting impact on me as an RPG fan, and perhaps my group's TPKs are less Grue-some than others. 

Magic Arena, or The Electro-Shock Rot-Ape Rotisserie Extravaganza

 I've recently made mention that I started playing Pauper (all-commons) Magic at my FLGS.  A few interesting pick-ups at both local shops, and a couple bucks to round out commons up through Fallen Empires for my evolving  Treefolk Historical Tour deck... and we hit a snag: the JV/Varsity Volleyball schedule.  Unable to make the Tuesday night games, I dove down a dark and dangerous path:  Magic Arena, the online version of the game.  

I began with the various tutorials and challenges provided and discovered I like collecting Magic much more when it's free!  Sure, the sets are limited to recent releases plus the "Alchemy" cards only available for use online, but I've evolved some starter decks into fun concepts like "Hoyce's Apartment" and "The Ent-rification of the Shire. 

My personal favorite?  The Historical Ranked set-up, where any card in the online catalogue is potentially available.  

I've managed to assemble the closest thing to a modern Red/Green Kird Ape Deck using some interested weenies.

1. Venerated Rotpriest - I was never a big a fan poison counters (aka Toxic) back in the day, but if I Titantic Growth this creature, or any other creature of mine, an extra poison counter is created, and it's cumulative with multiple rotpriests on the board!   I've never bolted a few of my own creatures to reach the all-important 10-poison counter win.

2. Electrostatic Infantry - Getting bonuses for each direct damage spell, plus low-cost sorceries that produce counters?  If the rotpriests get the first target of creature removal, this gives the Infantry some time to do damage before the next removal comes up.  Titantic Growths and other lesser bumps produce a poison counter and a +1/+1 counter on each of the respective creates?  Yes, please!

3. Rotisserie Elemental -  I threw these goofy looking things in to fill out the initial deck concept, and while not as powerful as the other two, I have realized it's potential.  

First off, for the old-old school Magic players, Menace means it can only be blocked by two or more creatures.  That turns it into a great Turn 1 drop, a few unblockable dinks, before coordinating your mana to utilize the cards drawn after you sacrifice it.  I've managed to throw out a whole new wave of stuff with three or four counters, and sometimes I've pulled excess basic lands out with some draws.  It's a work in progress.  

I Can Worship Gnomes for a Fortnite

 My daughter, Maja, got an X-Box for Christmas two years ago.  She'll spend an afternoon playing Minecraft here and there, but it's good ol' Dad relaxing on the couch, either blowing up guys in Fortnite, or blowing up guys crossing the blue line in NHL '19 (more on the second one later).

The game had a big conclusion of a storyline recent. This has cause a complete change in the map of the island the game is played on, and has force me to explore every inch, trying to figure out what to do, where to go, what spots are my speed, what spots are kill zones, etc.

I came across this awhile back, and figured it's the largest gnome I've seen in the game.  Hopefully they make a cult out of it, or something.

When I'm not getting 2nd or 3rd place in Fornite, I'm plodding through Season 4 of NHL '19 in Franchise Mode.  I'm in a happy place at mid-difficulty, hitting the opponents, getting goals and occasionally auto-playing the Seattle Dragons and their AHL farm team, the Boise Ice Drakes.

Since i made Seattle as part of an expansion team (still cooler than Kraken), I went through the expansion draft... but I needed to flesh out the NHL/AHL squad with free agents.  First on the list was my wife's favorite active player, Defenseman Tim Erixon. 

Season 4 has been going quite well.  I've been drafting and developing a stable of young D-Men.  The group is so strong that I was able to trade away my two top Defensemen for more top draft picks, and Tim has made his way to the first line.  

To top that,  I've taken advantage of his slap shot and he managed to score his 50th NHL goal this season (Even if it was Buffalo, it still counts).

(Kickstarter) Illuminati Confirmed by RadioFree.net

 Illuminati: New World Order (INWO) is my favorite collectible card game of all time.  Decades later, the boxes of cards are gone, but the appeal to play (and my "Chaos Locksmith" deck) is still there.  

Derek Pearcy, original creator of INWO, has now launched a Kickstarter through RadioFree.net for an updated computer game version of INWO.

While I can't confirm the Kickstarter allegations that games of INWO took 3+ hours (I think one game of the original Illuminati took four, usually we were bloodthirsty and efficient), I gratefully appreciate a program to do all the calculations, keeping track of changing alignments and bonuses.  

Thanks to the wonders of computers, changing alignments can now change the artwork on the cards.

To Those Who Will Make it in Hockey only in NHL19

Things have been crazy enough that I haven't even been able to distract myself with hockey on the xBox.

Just about a season and a half into franchise mode for the Seattle Dragons (Boise Ice Drakes) and I've mastered the mid-range difficulty.  Every once in awhile the AI blows me out in spectacular fashion, but so long as I land hits on opposing players, I'm able to keep up,

As the probability of the game is wont to do, I suffered a flurry of injuries at both the NHL and AHL levels, just enough to mess up my normal call-ups.

This has forced me to call up Patrick McGrath for his first NHL-ever game, which would never happen in real life.

In real-life, Pat McGrath was the local-kid-done-good for our local AHL farm team.  His skills more atuned to the ECHL level of hockey, his local ties and penchant for hitting opposing players in the face with his first made him a fan favorite.  He didn't score much, got scratched from the line-up often, but boy did he sell t-shirts and create standing-room only events out of signings.

Except that last season, the team's coach resigned, and the team literally stole away the 2019 Calder Cup winning coach and goalie mere weeks after winning it all.  Pat was not offered a contract and ended up playing the same role for the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL (farm team for the Colorado Eagles and Colorado Avalanche).

When I built my expansion team, my lack of knowledge on quality Estonian hockey players in the Canucks organization (and elsewhere) forced me rely on signing available current (and former) Penguins.  The Carl Hagelins and Tommy Kühnhackls have fared well in Seattle, and the a lot of AHL penguins fill Boise's roster.

But with that rash of injuries, the most veteran (and competent) Right Winger to call up the NHL was one Pat McGrath.

I love flip-flopping my 4th line between rookies and grinders, and with a weakened roster, grinders were all I had, so fit in perfectly, and got a good eight minutes of neutral ice time.

Until, of course, up two goals against them with a minute left, the opponent pulled the goalie... with my 4th line out there. 

A few seconds of extra-man chaos later, the Dragons got possession of the puck, drove up the left side under pressure, and eeked out a dribble of a pass to McGrath in center ice to seal the win with an empty netter.

He was more excited to get to that first shift in his NHL career, but his memorable first goal was last one. 

He was sent down to Boise before morning skate the next day, and will probably never return to Seattle under normal circumstances, but until he retires in the game, at least NHL19 Patrick McGrath will have NHL stats:  1 G 0 A 1Pt  2 PIM.

Your Stanley Cup Champion Seattle Dragons

The blog is rife with excuses for basketball trips, family functions, and wet basements, but the steadiest excuse is late night Franchise mode for NHL19. 

I got a copy of the game for either my birthday or Father's Day and my weakness for sports games has always been Franchise Mode.  Back in college, I'm notorious for setting up the new Cleveland Browns as my franchise team and ultimately playing all 30 seasons.  After jettisoning the likes of Ty Detmer and Tim Couch, I had a playoff contender by year five and a team that would dwarf the legendary Miami Dolphins perfect season by year ten and on.

Of course, that was all in Rookie Mode. 

With NHL19, I went the logical route and set up a franchise with the last logical slot for an expansion draft:  the Seattle Dragons (a good foil for the previously new Vegas Golden Knights).... at middle difficulty (Pro).

After a ho-hum expansion draft and a flurry of free agents signings and cheap trades for some of my favorite recent NHL/AHL Penguins (Hagelin, Kuhnackel, Ryan Reeves, Tim Erixon, and Joseph Cramarossa), I began the season.... and it was rough. 

Having never played any sports video games for a good 15 years, the first half of the season was.... rough, but in a tight Pacific Division, my seventh place standing gave me the farthest on the outside chase of snagging a wild card bearth. 

And as the trade deadline loomed, and I tried to see-saw between accumulating picks or giving some away for some missing pieces. 

But two or three days away from the deadline, the Detroit Red Wings offered Gustav Nyquist for two draft picks, I bit, and the whole world changed. 

I had been playing better before the trade, but afterwards, the Dragons began a slow climb to not only be an fringe playoff contender, but a 12-2-1 run at the end catapulted me to 2nd in the Pacific, with home ice for the opening series against Edmonton.

The playoffs were a blur of near perfection (16-4 for the Dragons, and 16-2 for their Boise Ice Drakes affiliate to win the Stanley Cup). 

I did a celebratory dance, resigned most of my players, somehow won the Tyler Seguin free agency sweepstakes.  A few simple trades to unload some underperforming stars on immense contracts and my Stanley Cup winning first line has been relegated to the second line.   I've realized during year two preseason that  the the next level above pro is insane to play, so I'll happily stay average (if any dear reader caught the first period of the Penguins-Sabres preseason game at State College, it felt a lot like that...)

Good news, with real live hockey back in the picture, plus a full slate of basketball and dance on top of my insane work schedule, my Stanley (and Calder) Cup defense will probably be in limbo for awhile.

Slices of Life on Pi Day

On the eve of my travel to Cold Wars, I simply can't wait.

This whole "adulting" thing the "kids" are calling it (re: regular living) has beaten me down and I seriously need a weekend away, a quiet meal by myself, without the family needing to go through their routine, and hopefully a few awesome game with my friends before I return to hockey game that afternoon.

The last month since we returned from our Valentine's trip to Pittsburgh:

*The kid's basketball is almost wrapped up.  Millie's last mandatory co-ed team in the local league got second in the foul shooting contest.  Maja's team that fought bravely and undermanned in the first round couldn't overcome the eventual teams in that met in the championship game and settled for third in the playoffs and second in their foul shooting contest.  Maja's travel team became champions in their age division.  And the last league with games left that has the girls play together on the same team has one game to go and the girls are still laughing, running, and terrorizing the other players.

The driveway is clear of snow and Maja was already outside in the driveway, working "grown-up" lay-ups.

*That all being said, we ended the bulk of hockey to a ton of home games, meet and greets, and a charity hockey afternoon with the players.  All fun stuff, but a lot of restaurant visits that fill up most of our evenings.  Heck, I'll be missing a hockey game while I'm in Lancaster!

I did beat a professional athlete at bowling!  Please, no applause.

*At work I'm suffering from audits on one end of the spectrum, and an expected attrition rate for my interns.  There are really positive changes in the near future, but it's been mind numbing

*Which gets us to my excuse of the month: video game addiction.  I'm certainly not playing whatever equates to HALO/Fortnight/Castle Wolfenstein/Doom online nowadays, but my mind continued to veg out with healthy doses Paper.io and me finally completing season mode on my $4 copy of NHL16 on my daughter's xBox.

Paper.io is no joke.  At least you can run out of lives on Candy Crush....

I've suffered through addictive personality traits back in the heyday of Atari, NES, and even some Madden in college.  But the cold, dark, neverending winter and a packed schedule put me in a daze not seen since my introduction to Civ2 (Thank God the online simulators aren't as good as the real deal).  Good news, the WBS Penguins won the Calder Cup and Paper.io is off the phone, let's hope both are permanent.  

*I've got some painting done, but nothing finished for Cold Wars.  Thank goodness I'm full player mode for the weekend.  Otherwise, it's looking like some TerrainCrate stuff to whet my appetite again.  

*My Reviresco order arrived with mixed results.

*The only consistent gaming has been my Monday night 5e games, although this week's session was a bust and I needed to revisit my BECMI Gulluvia game with the guys.  Session twelve was a hum-dinger with a proper cliffhanger ending!  The first eleven are all typed up for the blog and rescheduled to be posted weekly once....

*The Lost Dispatches of Feraso wraps up.  Only problem, its episodes continue to stretch into second or third episodes for what was originally considered a single measly post.  Elsderth and the Order of Merit continue to cross paths with the after-effects of my high school D&D party's actions.  I've got seven more weeks in the can scheduled to post, and, I pray, eight more episodes to type up before the high school campaign wraps up and I move onto my mid-90s exploits.  

See everyone on the other side of Cold Wars!

Post-Holiday Status Report

Regular readers of the blog that I can be a bit disheveled at times between our family life, kids' sports, and the never-ending barrage of hockey games we go to.

We decided to up the ante and include "remodel the downstairs" on our list.

The week before Christmas.

Now I love my wife, but the last 10 days or so have been mind-numbing.
Kitchen plumbing done by professionals, the entire downstairs floor getting ripped up and replaced in four days, two separate furniture deliveries, and TV shopping on top of the normal holiday itinerary chaos almost pushed us over the edge.  Thanks to some of the kids activities getting cancelled, we managed to push on and celebrate Christmas Eve and Day with little issue.

New flooring, new couch, even new tree....

Of course, we're painting after the New Year, so we're starting off the year where we left the last....

No great holiday gaming swag for me.  I figured power recliners, comfy chairs, and my eldest getting an XBox was good enough for me.  So after the dust settled, there are two gifts of great note to the blog:

This sweatshirt:

Second was a nice haul of the usual beers (my wife enjoys me when I drink Mad Elf.  I might be happy for weeks!) but the winner for the most interesting beer was Trooper Beer, the Iron Maiden beer, brewed by Robinsons Brewery.

My sister got me a four-pack of cans and I found it surprisingly mellow.  Pleasant first sip, zero aftertaste, and my wife thought she detected hint of honey.  Despite a madhouse all day long, I slowly sipped on this for the better part of the late afternoon.

One random note:  The latest Barbie Dream House is far bigger than its predecessors, and at least ours came in a well-labelled shipping box with no interior "store" box.  Through in all my tables at home were still covered with things from the great debacle, let's just say that Christmas Eve was exciting.  I have began to think of some GI Joe scenario using 12-inch figures and rows of these home as a condo development would be totally awesome.
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No major excitement on the gaming front.  A busy three-day work week full of deadlines and some hockey games will continue to deny me any motivation to do more than hide away for a half hour.   I picture my Apathy column and some New Years Eve fun will be all left for this blog in 2018.

Outside of that, I plan on making an order to Reviresco/Tin-Soldier.com for some Colonials and a much desired River Gunboat.

And a second XBox controller so Maja and I can duke it out!

OGRE Goes to University

The Daily Illuminator over at Steve Jackson Games was nearly giddy as a school girl to announce OGREs invading the Indiana University campus.

No, it wasn't a to-scale invasion, over even using the new plastic proofs from OGRE Minis, Set 1.

Most only notice chit-covered tables at a college after a long weekend.

Apparently, a game design class at IU was using the "Bad Timing" scenario that was available in issue #210 of Game Trade Magazine.  

I can't find any electronic link to the scenario on GTM, and if you can't hunt down a physical copy, the scenario is available over at Warehouse 23.

As a random sidenote, I'm not on the Steve Jackson site as much as I was in the days of yore (circa 1998), and was disappointed to not find a Daily Message from the Illuminati.   Here, the Illuminati has gone high-tech (They do control Apple after all) and have set up the Fnorder app for the iPhone. And it's free (mwhwhaha!)

Pokemon Go Away!

This is no way a political blog, and quite frankly, I unfriend most of my acquaintances on Facebook who have crazy fringe beliefs, but looking through my feed over the last week, the three biggest topics were

#3 - Hillary Clinton.  Makes sense, regardless of your personal opinion on the matter. 
#2-  Every single shooting that made the news last week... COMBINED.

#1 - Freakin' Pokémon Go.

The short, short version of this phenomena, by my skewed understanding?

Pokémon Go is a game app you can download to your phone.  You are a Pokémon trainer who seeks out these adorable Japanese creatures to train (and I hope ultimately put in brutal death matches).    While some of the Nintendo games had multi-player interaction capabilities, this is game has the Pokémon existing in real-time around the real world. 

Seriously, there could be a Charmander sitting right next you, right now (electronically of course) and you wouldn't know it unless you downloaded the app right now!!!!   These critters could be around the corner, in the local supermarket, or in a nearby park.   Your little character avatar doesn't travel that location to capture it in-game, you yourself, must physically travel to that location to capture it. 

And guess what?  All the other Pokémon players know it's there too.  And if news reports and social media are correct, they're coming to get it RIGHT NOW!   Catch 'em all, post-haste!

Even with talking to a few casual players (one who realized she was sitting on one in her booth at Ruby Tuesday over the weekend) I'm not sure as to the actual mechanics of capturing these little buggers, but the game has swept a sizable percentage of the population  

I get it, I get it.  It's not a sedentary activity.  Parents are praising the game for getting their kids off the couch and going outside, although I have had confirmed reports of random kids knocking on strangers' doors to ask permission to capture the Pokémon in their backyard.  It's a social activity, to boot, as friends join forces to search for the creatures. 

I work in a downtown location, right on the town square, and the true reality of Pokemon was apparent as I took a walk across the square to grab a coffee.

Between the paving operations going on, and the usual characters we've nicknamed "Squarians" it's an adventure out there to begin with.  Today, I nearly got run over by a kid flying down the sidewalk on his skateboard, fully engrossed on his cellphone.   Then I looked around and noticed packs of people wandering across the grass of the square, eyes locked onto the screens.  Like extras on the Walking Dead, they would stop, suddenly change directions, and shamble on until they reached their destinations.  Upon further inspection, I realized that there were about three dozen of these glassy-eyed individuals roaming the center of the square, with at least another dozen stumbling around the outer sidewalks.  Can't wait to see how this new phenomenon works when the Farmer's Market comes to town on Thursday, with a few hundred other people in attendance.

Perhaps the best definition I've come across is randomly generated geo-caching.   Except if this many people were actually geo-caching, we'd a huge increase in emergency calls as these people wandered the edges of the wilderness. 

It's not that I don't understand Pokémon.   I've been forced to deal with the American side of this media juggernaut from the first day some piece of merchandise hit our shores, and I dealt with the early days of the Pokémon Collectible Card Game.  Sure, money was made at the time, but I defaulted to retail child care or parental therapist and that sucked out a piece of my soul I will never get back.  You can't be a drug dealer and have a conscience.

And I understand the fun and addiction of game apps.  I've had a thorough interest in Mafia and Farm-style games on Facebook.  I may have crushed some candy in my day (The Frozen version was more fun, in my opinion).  I still have a Civilization-style game on my phone that does not have the Governator in a poorly fitting military uniform, or an open display of Kate Upton's boobs.   Heck I still have NCAA Football on my phone, from 2010 (Tebow's on the opening page). 

The tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists are always claiming that media tells us what's important.   After seeing the news feeds over the last few days, I'm happy my wife picked up a new roll, because I may need to make my own metal chapeau.  This is a herd mentality that could be used for good (put in polling places in November) or neutral (yay, capitalism), the sheer scope of this craze and the possibility for nefarious purposes (or mass stupidity) is there, but even worse, I see this as an easy way to make the world far more apathetic than I could possibly imagine before this past weekend.

Whether it's cops killing people, people killing cops, countries wishing to wreck economic unity, civil war (or the Zika virus) spreading like a plague around the world, everything takes a backseat to finding a Wartotle outside a public library... or at the corner of a drug house.

Thank God we've always been at war with Eurasia....

If this doesn't calm down, I'm going rent a Pikachu costume and dance across Public Square.  Either the players will be so engrossed in their phones that they'll ignore me, proving my worries,  or they will become incensed that there's a Pokémon that's not coming up on their screen.    Hopefully the penalty for inciting a riot isn't too bad.

Battletech? What Sorcery is This???

GenCon is descending on us like street urchins on a band of adventurers fresh from the dungeon.  I won't update every little announcement I find newsworthy, but this is left without comment, save one.

 

It's for the PC... or is it???

Legions of Steel App to Go Live July 16th!!!!

I had mentioned many years ago of a slight chance that Legions of Steel would go the digital app route for the iPad.  A few other mentions have been made over the years, including a failed crowdfunding campaign, but much to my surprise, a game for iPad and PC will be released July 16th!

It's not everything I was looking for in a game, but with multiplayer and fog of war options, it looks pretty good.

The Commandos are a little sleeker, and the Nightmares look a little bulkier, possibly to avoid issues with a movie with similar looking robots.

Alas I don't have an iPad anymore and my PC is near capacity... AGAIN.  Might be time to upgrade to the 2010's.

http://legionsofsteel.slitherine.com

I Love Hearing Myself Speak

I'm usually one that's a step tome two behind on the technology curve.  Part of that of that is largely a fundage issue, the other is the old fart adage that I'll look into it once they clear up all the bugs for the first generation on products.

That being said, I'm happy my wife upgraded my phone for Christmas. 

Sure, it's an iPhone 6- something or other.  After three years with the last one, I had finally maxed out its memory a week before the new one's arrival.  Here's hoping I can't max out 64 gig on this model. 

With extra time off from work, and waaay too much sit around the house with the family and do nothing time, I did download Gameof War.  You know, the one with gratuitous amounts of Kate Upton in the ads.  Nice mixture of Civilization and Age of Empires in a MMORPG platform.  A week later and I'm already at the point where the designers want you to drop cash to keep production levels at the "instant-gratification" level. Sorry, but I'll be happy to drop in daily to update things rather be slowly lose interest.  As I always say, I'm not the demographic. 

Regardless, here's the City-State of Neffs own hero, Hoyce!

Another feature of these silly phones that I'm learning to appreciate is the voice memo.  I've used it previously to record the last two Cthulhu recaps, and I just got around to listening to them to help type up Actual Plays 21-24 (Coming soon!  Honest!)

On the drive home Friday night, I finally made the realization that voice memo is indispensable between work and home.  I do some of my best mad scientist thinking in my 20-30 minute commute and the chaos of the office/home tends to wipe it from my memory.  A little "note to self" isn't a bad idea.  

One of my seasonal workers this Fall took this to the extreme.  He was a actor/director in a local theatre and we'd catch him all throughout the day mumbling thespian notes into his little battery powered tape recorder. It wasn't even his most annoying trait (and he had a few to choose from).  So long as I don't fill up my 64 gig with memos, I'll probably do better than him.

(Kickstarter) Legions of the Steel: The Video Game

Checking my links in the blog's links, I noticed one unusual one: a Kickstarter for a Legions of Steel video game for iOS, Android, and PC!

LOS Kickstarter

I've glanced at the pledge levels, and I'm pleased that they've offered hard copies of the original rules, PDFs, plus an art book. The redesigns of the UNE and machines are subtle, despite the commandos having 80s style shoulder pads with a Japanese flair (or were they Black Empire?)

It does look like they're at only 20% of their goal with14 days left, so if you're intersted in anything LOS, give them a boost.

Even if they're French....

Call of Cthulhu Character Creation App

It took me a couple of passes into yog-sothoth.com before I grasped the news headline.

"Call of Cthulhu Character Generator for iPad". 

Holy crap, Cthulhu's in the 21st Century (and still dreaming in Ry'leh, I hope)!

The app is supposed to cover all the standard eras plus Invictus and Dark ages.   Random stat generation, skill point tracking, and random name generator for the unimaginative.   The best part is that the sheets can be exported via pdf file for printing to your PC or Mac. 

Not too shabby for a $3.99 app.  I'm still happy with my software made by the guys at Hero Games back in the early 90's.  The 3 1/2" disk it came on is long gone, but I do have a back ups of the back ups hiding in the house.  In fact, the old program feels like a lot of the iOS apps, so perhaps I don't need to try the new one out.

Otherwise, technology ho!

Check out the App Store on iTunes for more details.

Fluxx iOS App Now Available

One more post before the 12 Days of Blogging commences tomorrow, but it's a big one.

Looney Labs, producers of such great games as Pyramids, Chrononauts, and multiple versions of Fluxx, have announced a very important addition to the family.  As of today, December 13th, the iOS (Apple product) version of the Fluxx app is available for sale.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluxx/id561319376?ls=1&mt=8

You can play solo, or link up with three other players.  And it's only $2.99!

Don't fret Android users, that version is still in development and coming soon.

FASA Kickstarter

I know that I'll get a few random web searches turning into dances of joy or cardiac arrests, after reading the title. Let's cover a few points.

• Apparently some of the guys from old FASA have come together to form new FASA.
• They do NOT have the license for either Battletech or Shadowrun.
• They seem to be selling PDF and hard copies if Earthdawn, Blue Planet, and Fading Suns in their web store, as well the 15mm Fantasy minis game, Demonworld
• Their Kickstarter is 1879, a massive Victorian Sci-Fi project involving 15mm minis, an app for the iPad, and a role playing game.

I have great love for Victorian Sci-Fi, even going into the large scale battles that 15mm allows. The ambitiousness of the endeavor isn't my sticking point, it's the $325,000 goal.

We are dealing with three separate fleshed-out projects here. Any one could garner sizable goals. Combining them is almost absurd. Wouldn't it be smarter to figure out which project would have the least risk/biggest profit margin and go from there? They're trying to create their branding in one fell swoop, which could be profitable, but more likely shall see what would have happened if the creators of Cop Rock signed merchandising and syndication deals before the pilot aired. There's investing in a product line, and then there's signing Martha Stewart to a product line when she was twelve.  There's only so much good faith you can count on a gamer for.

The RPG looks like a variant of Space: 1889, the minis are "heroic" 15mm with bayonets big enough to cut down trees, and the screen shoots of the app are so early in development that it could be orcs, Redcoats, or gangs of break dancers.

C'mon "FASA" who has the rights to Renegade Legion instead?

UPDATE:  It looks as if scant days into the fundraising, FASA has cancelled the project outright. Forty-some pledges and under $3,000 probably put the fellas in panic mode.   Grandiose expections, poor presentation, and limited promotion killed this from the start.  Let's see when they restart the project next years (sans app) how they present it.