The site I’ve been working on the past few weeks is finally live! The site wheresmywow.com is way for players to report when they’re having problems connecting to a World of Warcraft server. The reports are compiled and are listed on the site, that way users can determine whether they are having a problem with their local connection or if there’s a server outage. Blizzard has their own official status page, but it’s been inaccurate—particularly when there’s a network or authentication server problem that keeps people from logging on.

Where’s My WoW is a learning system, so if more people are reporting outages it will learn and compensate for it with future reports. I have a few ads on the site, but I’m not planning on making a lot of money; I’m mostly worried about getting a big bandwidth bill, so hopefully the ads will help a bit.

Now the trick is to get some more people using the site; the more people that use it, the more accurate the server reports will be.

Today the Eat My Bomb podcast is live and has been submitted to the podcast directory on the iTunes Music Store (pending approval). But you, dear reader, can listen to it now. In iTunes, under the Advanced menu, choose Subscribe to Podcast. The URL for the EMB Podcast is:

http://www.eatmybomb.com/podcast/rss.xml

I can say without hesitation that with our first attempt we have created the best video gaming podcast available. Huzzah!

One of the over-arching plot-lines in World of Warcraft is the appearance of the mysterious Silithid, a strange insectoid race with a history on Azeroth longer than most realize. During the course of the game, the entire server population is slowly gearing up for war with the invaders. These events culminated on the Eldre’Thalas server on Friday, when members of The Final Sanctum guild struck the gong and opened the gates of Ahn’Qiraj, spaking war with the Silithid.

The event was marked with an inauspicious start: the Eldre’Thalas server completely crashed. It was the first time - but not the last time - this would happen Friday night. As the event geared up and the war spread to other regions of the game, things seemed to become more stable and eventually the game resumed. The Silithid and Ahn’Qiraji army stormed over the Silithus, Un’Goro crater, and Tanaris regions of the world. Alliance and Horde players poured into southern Kalimdor to meet the threat, and for eight hours massive raid groups cut down hundreds of the Anubisath Warbringers as they stormed out of Ahn’Qiraj. In my less cynical moments I like to think that the world was rising to meet the threat. Unfortunately, I have to think that most people showed up just to say that they’d seen it happen.
For those who couldn’t make the event, I took lots of screenshots. Here’s my photo essay:

Players begin to gather.

This can’t be good…

Luckily, I brought along some friends…

who took care of business.

No one called the ASPCA for this guy.

BOOYAH! 125 damage!

Don’t worry fellas, I got these guys.

If I’d had an angle grinder I’d have given this guy the pedicure from hell.

Elves and cows, working together for a better tomorrow.

The Alliance and Horde armies showed up after the killing was done.

This guy turned Gadgetzan into a graveyard.

In the end, the great irony was that after the Ahn’Qiraj had been defeated, all of that cooperation and goodwill vanished . The neutral city of Gadgetzan (the site of a major Ahn’Qiraj battle) turned into a massive Horde vs. Alliance battleground. When the dust settled, it turned out that the Ahn’Qiraj had been mind-controlling some members of both sides. Once enough people got stabbed in the back the resulting slaughter was unstoppable.

The gates of Ahn’Qiraj remain open. The brave hearted can now take the battle to the enemy.

Recent intelligence confirms that WMFTD* are being stockpiled in my home

What makes me walk by a window at the mall and say “I could use a few more games….” when I have 5 unopened gems on my desk at home? Probably the same instinct that drives squirrels to collect nuts, or the same urge that makes women buy 5 different colored pairs of the same shoe.  Either way - I make no excuses….or plans for the weekend.

I honestly would not be mad if I had to take a short term disability leave from work. As long as I didn’t have to have anything disfiguring happen to me…..anything visible at least 

*Weapons of Mass Free-Time Destruction 

Welcome to beautiful Akron, Ohio: tire capital of the world!

Sierra really went for it with NOLF2. I can’t think of another shooter with scenarios as diverse as Japan, Siberia, India, and *gulp* Akron, Ohio, and I’m only halfway through the game! Each locale has an incredible amount of detail and area specific music that are authentic to the region, yet still maintain the 60’s spy feel throughout. So far, it’s an amazing achievement; managing to be both diverse and totally cohesive.

There were tires everywhere…

(Read on …)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been delving deep into that most familiar of economic sims….Used Car Purchasing 2K6. So far, there has been a bit of improvement to the interface over the last time I played this bastard (UCP 2000) with the rise in popularity of boston.craigslist.com and other helpful search and appraisal sites such as www.cars.com, www.edmunds.com, and of course good old www.kbb.com. Successfully completing the game requires a careful bit of micromanagement between the financial aspect, the availability of product selection, competition with the AI also gunning for that same model, and a whole bunch of luck with the behind-the-scenes dice rolls. I think I may be nearing the endgame, at which point I will be able to put this title down for another few years.

I need to buy a fucking lottery ticket.

A long time ago I tried playing Ultima Online to see if this hot new “massively multiplayer online role-playing game” business was worth its salt. At the time I remember thinking that it was a dark and unplesant experience where the phrase “massively multiplayer” somehow made up for terrible graphics, poor user interfaces, and boring gameplay. I swore never to return to this room of torture and managed to resist its blandishments for over a decade.

(Read on …)

You’d better let me get to the next level, Stubbs! Don’t make me go Dodongo on your ass!