It's been so long since I've posted that I've nearly forgotten my password. One of these days I'm going to post more than once a month. I don't know when, but it will probably have to wait for me to grow some kind of organ that can translate ideas into words.
Since my posts are largely fueled by boredom and donuts, and since I have a donut and have just finished watching the latest episode of Heroes (and am therefore bored because season 3 is poop), you get to read another one of my ramblings.
I was in Waterloo for a few days last month visiting ex-roommates and -universities. You might recall it was last year's trip to Waterloo that spurred the creation of this very monster you're reading. Waterloo was just as good this year as it was last year, though obviously not as inspiring since I didn't end up writing new blog software as a result.
Speaking of ugly websites, Seth "Keigo" Butcher has decided to make a gamer blog called Analog Shtick. You all know what I think about fixed-font and -width websites, and so does Keigo. That sure doesn't stop him. Unlike most website designers (who do wrong out of ignorance), Keigo tries my patience out of a form of powerful malevolence previously unknown to the world. He's like a kind of humanoid ball of hatred. And probably bacon: he loves bacon.
Keigo linked to my blog from his blog, so I'm linking to his from mine. Now his two readers and my five can intertwine and form a synergistic community based on a mutual love of computer-simulated lasers. Also, Keigo is a pretty cool guy. One time, he mailed me Exile so that I could play it. Like, through the mail. You have to be pretty cool to like the Myst series (it's a requirement on the box), so he's cool by my books (do you get it? It's a pun).
One thing I've been meaning to mention is Penny Arcade's recent spiel on DRM. Tycho got three writers from the video game industry to write up what they think about the subject. I honestly don't think anyone can say anything better than what was said by those three. If you only read three posts on Penny Arcade this year, make it those three, unless you don't give a damn about intellectual property rights and how the abuse thereof is taking its toll on PC gaming.
Seriously. People have really made their thoughts clear regarding EA's annoying (and more importantly useless) copyright protection scheme, going so far as making in-game protest creatures to show their distaste for it. (Though I believe the irony is lost on these people that they're paying for the game in order to protest it.)
Complicated sentence time: if I weren't already not buying Red Alert 3 because of EA's continued ruining of my beloved Command & Conquer series, I wouldn't be buying it because of its SecuROM silliness. Notwithstanding the DRM, the overall crappiness of the game (and Generals, C&C 3 and Kane's Wrath) is more than enough reason to turn my back on EA's perversion of Command & Conquer forever. I really should have done this three games ago, but alas, old fandoms die hard.
And last but not least in my game post, I got an e-mail from Unknown Worlds regarding Natural Selection 2 — one of the perks of being among the first players of the game is being on the exclusive first-players e-mail list for NS updates. The Unknown Worlds team is actively designing a new engine just for this game, and it looks fantastic. Natural Selection was a good game back in the day, and I'm pretty confident these guys can pull it off again. I've got high hopes for this one. Here's hoping they don't let me down.