Fanboys have been wringing their hands over the recent trend of video games to evolve away from dedicated servers. With the high profile release of Modern Warfare 2 there have been calls for boycott. Then id software announced that its next game probably won’t have them either. Just today I picked up a copy of PC Gamer in which a writer whines that dedicated servers are, well, warm and friendly and multiplayer gaming without them thrusts the poor fella on the mercy of us lowly unwashed. Cry more, snob.

I kid. But it gets to the crux of why I won’t miss dedicated servers. I stopped playing Quake Zero after an incident I experienced when I joined a public server (owned by id software). A clan of players, I remember they all had a Texas handle, warned me to leave. Of course, that’s ridiculous. It was a public server that the game told me was the best match for my skills. I was clearly in the minority, so they ganged up and voted me off the server. With that they effectively turned a public beach in their private little sandbox.

Because somebody usually pays for them, server owners feel they have privileges not granted to the general public. Battlefield 2 demonstrated this well. Even though DICE took steps to make sure everyone had the same experience, it is not unusual to find server admins who modify server settings to aid stat padding or even enforcing non-sense rules like “don’t capture a flag, we need EU army hours” with kickbans.

No dedicated servers means nobody owns the server. There is no server admin who feels entitled to tweak and cheat the scoring system. There are no teenage control freaks getting jollies from kicking players. There is no elitist attitude about being deemed worthy of playing with the good ol’ boys. Good riddance dedicated servers! Without them multiplayer gaming is fairer and less frustrating.

photo credit: pylypenko

And now some stuff that has been on my mind.

• What the Netflix Prize 2 gonna be like?
• Why can’t I get motivated to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo?
• Can I do anything cool with Raphaël?
• When is my copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with the night vision goggles going to arrive?
• Why are the retailers already selling Christmas junk?
• Why does the Lord of the Rings Trilogy make walking seem interesting?
• When am I ever going to catch up on my book list?
• Should I put up Christmas decorations outside before the weather gets colder?
• Could burritos be more awesome?
• Should I go see the Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute show? By myself?
• Why don’t I play guitar more?
• Why is it I forget what I needed when I get to the store?

Another meme from Facebook..

Once, you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things. At the end, you choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I’ve done this meme before (see previous note) but have been tagged a couple more times since I wrote the note. So here goes. Again I’m not tagging anybody even though I love reading friend’s random things.
2. I’m not what you call a morning person.
3. I wish I could play the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn.
4. I wonder what life would be like marooned in space aboard a spaceship with a hologram of my best buddy, a life form evolved from a cat, an android and a hyper-intelligent computer that runs the ship.
5. I took remedial reading in grade school; there I discovered my talent for computers.
6. I once met a guy whose legal name was Tiger Love. He freaked me out.
7. Books that contain over 400 pages intimidate me.
8. My favorite author is Ray Bradbury.
9. I refuse to watch movies in which Bruce Willis stars.
10. I’ve held the Daredevil’s and the Kingpin’s prop canes.
11. I’ve pushed the button at the Milwaukee convention center that reads “Push to play Polka”.
12. I know the secret phrase to enter the Safe House in Milwaukee.
13. Tony Dungy signed my Gen Con Indy badge one year.
14. I have a profile on an online dating website.
15. My father loved “The Screwtape Letters”; it’s on my book list.
16. I have so many unfinished video games that if I completed one a week, I wouldn’t finish until July.
17. I don’t understand the appeal of televised poker.
18. It seems like I spent a majority of my 20s working inside a cubicle.
19. It’s almost 2010. Where’s my rocketpack?
20. I had a high school crush on a couple Facebook friends. Of course if you’re wondering, then yes, it was totally you, darling!
21. I have a propane grill and intend one day to master the art of the BBQ.
22. I like chili esp Cincinnati-style chili.
23. I ask people about the jewelry they wear; there’s always a story there.
24. I’ve been to the Chicago Blues Festival three times; ran into the guys who run the Creepy Crawl in St Louis there one year.
25. My mailbox has 121 Mb worth of messages; just 1% of what Google mail has allocated.

Breaking the Tower

I told my brother that I’d post an entry with some of the freely available video games I am playing. I listen to the Bytejacker netcast for the latest in free indie games. The host does a good job of covering everything from downloadable games for consoles to Flash games.

The adventure game genre has totally been snubbed by all of the mainstream game studios. Thankfully, several indie developers have stepped up to produce some great games. I enjoyed Spooks produced by Erin Robinson. While I did get stuck once or twice, I felt compelled to figure out the puzzles and finish the game.

Here are other adventure games on my list of titles I plan to check out: Cave Story, Dirty Split, Duty and Beyond, Kaptain Brawe, Life of D. Duke II, Loftus and the Sky Cap, Reactor 9, The Chef, The Guardian of Paradise and The Winter Rose.

A few weeks ago I went to over to my buddy Tom E.’s place to play some Duke Nukem 3D. The game was released by 3D Realms way back in 1996. Thanks to the efforts of the guys over at EDuke32 it is possible to play it on Windows Vista PCs. It was painful getting a networked game going. But we had fun once we worked it out.

Then we tried a game of the one of my favorite pointless games called Red Pixel. It is a multiplayer deathmatch in which you can destroy parts of the world. It was fun to blast away for a while. But soon it became tedious. With more players the game becomes mass chaos! Basically it has all of the fun of a modern first-person shooter without all of the eye candy.

I found this Java-based game I like called Breaking the Tower. It is the closest I have come to enjoying a strategy game since Dune II. No, I am not going to crab about the things that modern RTS games do wrong. Also, I have no schadenfreude when the folks who make those games fail. Hey guys, maybe you could make some nice adventure games instead!

There are scores of Flash-based games available. At best most of them are forgettable. I like 41st Reality for its catchy soundtrack and decent design.

Lastly, another genre that has been snubbed these days is the space simulation shooter. I recently installed Freespace 2 (FS2) thanks to the FreeSpace Open Installer. Now I am playing through the game again. It is amazing that its creator, Volition, managed to produce the game in under a year. It helped that they were able to leverage the work that they had done for the first Freespace game. FS2 features a deep story and awe inspiring effects such as beautiful nebula clouds that wreak havoc on your sensors and battles with massive capital ships that shoot impressive beam weapons. If there is a genre that is crying out for a revival, it is this one! Can you imagine a big battlefield filled with a great number of space ships each lovingly rendered with shader magic and high polygon count love? Be still my heart.

Donations for Pizza

When I was back home visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, my brother told me he was planning on a having a LAN party. For those who don’t know LAN parties are events where people bring their computers, network them together and play multiplayer games. What follows is some sage advice I have gleaned from organizing several LAN parties.

First of all as the host you have to choose the location. Make sure there is plenty of power to supply everyone. The largest event I had involved 11 computers. I planned to spread the participants over two floors of my house. But everyone choose to set up in my basement. Thankfully, there were no power issues.

Here is a list of items the host should provide (or ask somebody to bring)

LAN PARTY HOST

• Network Switch – Switches are good; hubs are an adequate alternative. These days most cheap switches made for home networks have 4-5 ports. Make sure you have enough ports and crossover cables to support the number of intended players. Ask somebody to bring a switch/hub if you don’t have enough.
• Wireless Router – It is common that laptops have wireless network cards built into them. A wireless router can handle the assigning of IP addresses (DHCP) to both wired PCs and wireless laptops.
• List of Games – Do some research. Many multiplayer games have demos that are freely available. Try some of them out and see what you like. Provide a list of games to your guests so they can install them before the event. Oh yeah, pirating computer games is evil. I don’t care how you justify it to yourself. Don’t do it!
• Food - Something that has worked for me is to ask for donations for pizza/soda. You can have a donation jar. If donations are low, carry the jar around to the guests. You do not get any points for subtlety.

Watching people play computer games is lame (kinda like watching televised poker *yawn*). If you show up to a LAN party, be prepared to participate. There are several things which guests should be expected to bring. The following is a list of those items.

LAN PARTY GUESTS

• Functioning Computer – Hey, any of yose guys know how to install an operating system? Although there are usually a lot of technically saavy folks who can help, it is a bummer to spend your time working on your rig.
• LCD Monitor – Limit yourself to a single monitor. Multi-monitor setups are pretty common these days, but aren’t really necessary for LAN play. Also, LCD monitors are infinitely more portable than the old CRTs.
• Network Cable – Wireless connections will never beat the performance of a wired connection. For that you need a network cable. Bring an extra if you have one.
• Powerstrip – A powerstrip with a surge protector is invaluable. Daisy-chaining strips is not recommended. But if you find it necessary, limit the chaining.
• Headphones – There is a lot of noise at a LAN party. If everyone brought speakers, it would be even louder. Headphones also have the benefit of allowing you sneak up on your friend in a game without announcing the approach over your speakers.

I should also mention that there are some nice party games for consoles these days. I have been to a few events now where the host has fired up a game of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I am excited to play the Burnout Paradise Party Pack. But we will have to wait a couple more months before it is released.

A man used the medic training he learned in America’s Army — a video game the Army gives away as a promotional item — to save a life.

It is the same game that the Iraq Veterans Against the War protested last year at the Black Expo in St Louis. There they lined in formation and yelled “War is not a game!”

I am grateful for their service to our country, but in this case, War Saves Lives!

I went to the Scott Air Show at Scott AFB with Signgirl and D. We were treated to a rare display of a grounded B-2 Stealth Bomber from Whiteman AFB. The bomber is seldom seen outside of its home base and is even more rarely seen grounded. We also toured a massive C-5. We climbed the ladder to the cockpit and checked out the cramped sleeping quarters up there. In spite of the heat D played in a bouncy castle. We had a good time. I highly recommend the show especially for parents with children interested in airplanes.

Today we went to the Saint Louis Science Center. They had a special exhibit with Marvel Superheroes that D enjoyed. They had several Playstation 2s set up for kids to play Marvel-based video games. This got me thinking of a question: who is your favorite video game character?

My favorite video game character is the space ship. I really enjoyed playing space shooters such as Wing Commander and FreeSpace 2. It is a shame that there has not been any innovation in this genre since FreeSpace 2’s massive capital ships and foggy plasma clouds. Graphical hardware and CPU horsepower has improved to the point that it would be possible to have battles with massive ships and have it highlighted with dramatic interaction with your teammates.

Recent history has shown that a smart company can breathe new life into a underappreciated genre. Role playing games had been given mediocre treatment for years when BioWare came along and blew everybody away with Baldur’s Gate. The company breathed new life into the genre and continued rolling out successful titles for years afterwards. They gave us these gems: Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

I would love to see some company buck the trend of Resident Evil clones and Grand Theft Auto knock-offs. Making a space shooter is a risky proposition but could be profitable for somebody willing to take the risk.