The Raven and the Stormcrow

Pat has decided to do her blogging on her multiply site, so she can socialize with her work friends.

I would blog on multiply too, but it appears to lack a lot of the tools that I've gotten used to in blogger, so I guess I'll stay here. Maybe I'll mirror it on my multiply site, if I don't feel too lazy.

It sort of feels strange to stay on Raven and Stormcrow though. So I'm migrating too, over to gaebril.blogspot...

STOP THE MUSIC!!!

Some other guy already has dibs on that address. And he has all of four posts in his blog, over two years. Great.

Well, I can still get gaeb.blogspot.com. So, that will be the new place for me to write stuff.

See you there!


Stormcrow
Gaebril

But now I'm back!

Well okay, I didn't actually go anywhere. I've just been playing mafia. What is mafia, you ask? It's a text-based, online multiplayer game. It's a psychological experiment. It's a battle between a powerful informed minority and a weak, uninformed majority.

Interested in learning the rules? Click here. Want to play? Drop me a line and I'll induct you into the Mafia Gang, a group for playing mafia over email.


Props to Pat's officemate, for praising my writing, and inspiring me to post again.


Stormcrow

The toy launch for the Transformers movie is this saturday! W00t! Things will start as soon as Megamall opens, at the ground floor atrium area.

Now, there's something everyone should know before they watch the TF movie: It's going to be really different from the old TV series. No shrinking robots: No soundwave, no casseticons. Megatron is a jet! Starscream looks like a baboon! Prime takes off his faceplate, shows his lips! No grimlock, no devastator, no insecticons. Who the hell are Bonecrusher, Barricade and Blackout? The transformations are less blocky, more organic. The robots are a lot less human, a lot more insectlike. They are all very strange and alien, not the reassuring protectors from the 80s.

Get over all of this before you watch the movie. Just from the CG I've seen in trailers, this will be one of the best movies evar that contains cars that turn into giant robots. Sure, it forgets its roots. It's not the transformers you remember. Maybe it shouldn't have been called the transformers at all.

Get over it now. Don't let that stop you from enjoying a really well made movie about transforming robot aliens.

I'd hate to think anyone is unable to appreciate what they get, because of what they wanted.

Stromcrow

Labels: gimmik, toys

In the past, I've written a bit about choosing between a DS and a PSP. I'm firmly in the camp of DS now, moreso since my sister got her own. It's really good stuff, and I think that I for one will not find a lack of good games on the system. "Gamer's games" these days being all about big graphics and fast response times, I'm quite happy to find a system where the quiet joy of a turn-based RPG has not been forgotten.

I'll get one once I've figured out what I'm actually supposed to be doing at work, apart from just dicking around on the internet. ^_^


Edit: Posts need pics! Here's a screenshot of FF3 for the DS. (Not FF6, which was released in the states as FF3 as well)

Stormcrow

Labels: games, tech

I was watching some guys at the office open packs of the Warcraft TCG the other day.

Until you see the cards for yourself, they could be anything at all.

What quantum physics teaches, gamblers already know: reality is a shifty bitch.

Labels: cards, Zen

Have been busy last week... studying ABAP out of the office. My internet presence has been weak recently as a result. This will continue for another week, so don't be surprised if I appear to be hard to contact for a while.

---

Magic, anyone? Maybe not next weekend though..

Stormcrow

Labels: cards, work

I have discovered that I can get cheap WoW singles, from the same place that sells cheap magic commons. So, right now I'm really interested in building a deck, even if just a couple of cheap ones for fun.

How are the rules? You can find a good flash tutorial at the official site. Alternately, I could just tell you that it's so similar to Magic that I'm surprised they don't get sued. Untap, upkeep, draw and all that. Instead, I'll look at what's different:

• You (the player) are represented by a Hero card, revealed at the start of the game. It sets your starting life, gives you abilities, and defines your race, class and traits (ie, decktype, like a L5R stronghold).
  
  
• You can only play cards that share a trait with your Hero (ie, only Horde cards or Rouge cards if your Hero is a Horde-aligned Rouge)
  
• All costs are colorless (like L5R). You can play ANY card as a land by playing it face down (like VS). Quests are lands, but with extra abilites.
  
• Damage to creatures is cummulative; it doesn't fade at the end of the turn. Damage tokens are suggested (like pokemon).
  
• Weapons and Armor are just like artifacts with "1, T: Your Hero has +3/+0" or "T: Prevent the next 2 damage to your Hero". (numbers vary)

List of card correspondences:
Creature -> Ally
Land -> Quests (or any card)
Artifact -> Weapon, Armor, Item
Sorcery -> Ability
Instant -> Instant Ability
Enchantment -> Ability with Ongoing trait

So... anyone else want to try this?


Stormcrow

Labels: cards, games