I'm Supposed to Have Some Weird Statement Here

- My Brain Exploded -

... with the possibilities.

So, remember a long time ago when I said, "Friday is a great Web site for finding browser games"? Well, I didn't say which Friday. Technically. So I'll do that some Friday! Genius, eh?

Anyway, Blizzcon was a week ago, and despite all of the cool stuff that's going to be happening with WoW, the most amazing thing to me was their demo of what you'll be able to do with Starcraft II's world editor. I don't want to spoil it before you get to see it (if you haven't already), so I'll stop typing here and just let it speak for itself.

-- Pawn --

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If I Were Invulnerable, I Wouldn't Fight Crime: I'd Be a Firefighter

- One of My Favorite Blogs -

So, Wednesday I said that today's post would be about one of my favorite blogs. Of course, at the time I didn't really know which blog I would be writing about, but I figured I'd just go through my recent RSS stuff in Opera (which I actually use exclusively as an RSS client) and find a good one.

At 2:30 AM I realized that I had a blank post scheduled to pop up at 6 AM. Oh, guess I'd better write something!

I used to have a browser-based game. It was called Elinon. It was fairly cool. It got fairly popular at one point exclusively through word-of-mouth (which I thought was neat). Then, I got bored with it. I got sick of it. I delegated my responsibilities to other admins and vanished into the night. Years later, when it was virtually dead anyway, I closed it down (mostly because it was a senseless money drain, and I didn't have the income).

However, I want to make another game.

Building Browsergames is an awesome site for anyone who's working on, thinking about working on, wants to work on, or even already has a popular browser-based game or gaming site. It's worth the visit for the blog alone, but it also offers tutorials, code snippits, links to other useful sites, and an awesome forum community.

I feel like I'm a fairly intelligent person, but the blog amazes me time and time again with stuff that I just never really thought about. If you're not really interested in browser-based game development, just forget I ever posted this (or take the opportunity to check out their affiliates and find some good online games). However, If you're one of those people out there who loves video games, and you're thinking about trying to make your own some day (or are already in the process), check out this site.

No, really.

Stop reading this and go to http://buildingbrowsergames.com.

Sunday is puppy day!

-- Pawn --

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If I Had Super Strength, I Wouldn't Fight Crime: I'd Build Stuff

- Two Awesome Webcomics -

I've never really enjoyed pen-and-paper games. This includes both the "typical" pen-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, but it also includes other board games and tabletop games that require you to write things, like Clue. (Crossword puzzles and word searches are different, although I don't really like the latter that much.)

I said all of that as intro for a couple of the most awesome webcomics I've ever had the privilege to read.

Giant In the Playground is host to Order of the Stick and Erfworld. The first is written and illustrated by the owner of giantitp.com, and the latter is created by a couple of equally talented individuals.

Order of the Stick is about a party of heroes in a Dungeons and Dragons-based world. That's the basic premise in a nutshell. However the author, Rich Burlew (who goes by the moniker "Giant in the Playground") has given all of the major characters extremely intricate backstories and personalities. They interact with each other more realistically than do characters in most other D&D-based comics I've seen, and the overarching plotline is nothing short of epic. All of this is acted out by, hilariously enough, stick figures. Still, the wounds displayed on the characters after tense battles seem real enough, and it definitely doesn't keep the main villain, Xykon, from seeming intimidating and downright evil at times. If you never read another webcomic in your life, make sure you at least give Order of the Stick a try. It's seriously awesome.

However, equally awesome (and better-drawn, if that matters to you), is giantitp.com's other webcomic. Developed by a couple of guys named Rob and Jamie, Erfworld explores what would happen if a tabletop game enthusiast's dearest dream became reality. Parson Gotti is transported into a world that's both strange and familiar ("strangely familiar" would actually be a good way of describing it). Turns out he's been magically summoned into a world much like the tabletop games he's been designing, and he's the new warlord of a faction that's pretty close being eliminated from the face of the planet (or whatever Erfworld is).

Honestly, it seemed pretty silly to me when I first started reading it, and it started out slow (which the authors admit), but it gets so, so much better around halfway through the first book (and it's not exactly boring before then, either). You can tell that the authors really put a lot of work into designing the game-world and its rules, and I seriously want to see an Erfworld video game. The world itself isn't the only well-designed aspect of this webcomic, either: the story itself is solidly sewn together, compelling, and (probably most importantly) entertaining.

With the conclusion of book one, Erfworld has been moved to its own domain. Frankly, I'm excited for what's to come, and I definitely suggest this webcomic as well.

Friday is one of my personal favorite blogs.

-- Pawn --

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Kitties Are Great, Too

- Warcraft III -

I picked up the Warcraft Battle Chest (which now contains WC3 and the expansion) a few days ago. After a few minutes of confusion due to the original game and the expansion being completely separate (I was really expecting it to be an expansion of the first game, rather than a completely separate game made with the same engine), I started playing it.

First of all, I was disappointed that the Battle Chest no longer contains WC2 (as it did the last time I remember seeing it). I was really looking forward to going way back into Warcraft history and actually seeing stuff happen instead of just reading about it. (I'd really like to play the original Warcraft, too, but I'm too lazy to find a place to order it.)

I also feel like I would be enjoying the story a lot more if I'd played it seven years ago. Since I already knew exactly what was going to happen, it didn't surprise or disappoint me at all when Arthas went evil. (I have to stare at his death knighty face almost every time I log into WoW.)

Anyway, I'm a few missions into the Undead campaign by now. I've also done a few of the Maiev missions in the expansion, and I'm working on the little Rexxar campaign thingy as well. It's really a lot more fun than the main game. I can see why people were so excited about WoW after playing it.

As for the game itself, it's pretty great. Every faction is completely different at their core, which I love. At the moment, humans are my favorite, simply because the paladin and mountain king heroes are so ridiculously powerful. Paladins are my favorite hero unit so far, although that's simply because their armor aura is awesome, and they can heal very frequently. Oddly enough, I have yet to use Divine Shield, and I've only used Mass Resurrection once (and only one unit was dead). Those are the two spells that I've heard/read people complaining about being so overpowered, but I haven't seemed to have a use for them. If I ever start doing multiplayer, I'm sure that'll change, though.

The biggest thing I don't like about the game is that it's difficult to use units' special abilities. Especially annoying is the hotkeys they chose for the abilities. Holy Light is T. Healing Wave is E. It seems like it would have been a lot easier to just make all units use the QWER keys for their abilities, and then you just hit the key based on the position of ability in their little grid thingy. The manual said you can redefine hotkeys (although you apparently have to go in and manually edit a file?), but I doubt that extends to units' abilities. Maybe I'll check later.

All-in-all, it's a great game. I'm really looking forward to getting beyond the stage where I suck so I can go and play a few games on battle.net (and get owned... at first). I can definitely see similarities between WC3 and the early patches of WoW. There are still similarities, of course, but I can now see why some of the silly stuff in early WoW was the way it was.

Wednesday, I talk about Web browsers!

-- Pawn --

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