So, me and the boys (Drew, Kev, Captain Greg, and Sammy) have been playing around with Guild Wars. Drew and I started playing this back when I was trying to convince him to play EverCrack2 with me. EverCrack2 was $49 + $14.95/month or something like that, and Guild Wars was just $49… He ended up cracking and joining us on EQ2, but we all became pretty disenchanted with EQ2 and the boss spawn lines, and whatnot. We finally ditched it, and our little band of merry adventurers retired to other things IRL.

Well, it appears we forming up again! I’m still trying to get the boys sold on CounterStrike:Source, and maybe pull us all back into Eve!! LOL

Here’s the first group picture from Guild Wars… Yep.. We took a group picture. Aren’t our wives lucky lucky girls? (Thank god we have wives already)  Kev isn’t in this photo as he joined us later…

God, we are dorks...

My laptop arrived at HP today… Well, it arrived yesterday, it was acknowledged today. :) I have to say, I’m impressed with my experience so far. The experience on the phone initially was good. I didn’t feel like they were making me jump through hoops or anything like that. It was pretty cut and dry. But, then again when video dies, it’s pretty cut and dry. So, we’ll see how the rest of this pans out.

This morning FedEx picked up my laptop and is now sending it on its way over to HP for repair. I was recently reminded by a former co-worker about my record when it comes to technology… Especially computers and cars it seems. Now that I think of it, I’ve NEVER once been able to install a CPU without dropping it and bending the pins. I was so happy to see them move away from pins finally!. You remember my wonderful Corvette? Not to mention my current car and it’s bad gas cap…

Well, hopefully things will move along smoothly. I’m having some pretty serious withdrawal without my work machines. :(

So, we all know how much I rely on my computers. Well, yesterday one of them died. My laptop, which is my work machine died on me. The video card died — and died hard. The machine won’t even post now. So, I called HP, and I have to admit the experience wasn’t bad at all. But, I have to send my machine back to them to fix. Of course part of the process of fixing the machine is wiping my hard drive!! DOH!! That is this weekend’s project. Ugh… I hate hardware…

Ok, Brenda! I’m downloading it now! :) I speak of course about the Sauerbraten Game Engine. Brenda has recommended this twice, and the first time I just let it slip into the comment void. I’m downloading it now. What did it for me this time was the map in the picture. That’s FACES!!! You old school Unrealers out there know what I’m talking about. HOURS of fun on that map. So, I will have to check it out. If you miss old school Quake, Unreal, or have a machine that can’t run Crysis (I so have to get that game), then give this one a shot. Or give it a shot even if you don’t meet those criteria. It’s free for shit sake!

There was a time when I would definitely call myself an avid gamer. I’d still like to call myself that. But, lately every game I play seems to fall short of that proverbial mark — whatever that mark is. Perhaps the problem is I am not aware of the mark I am trying to hit.

I just LOVE Massively Multiplayer Online games. I’ve loved them since the days when we mudded on terminal screens at the University…

I’ve played a lot of MMOs since those days: EQ2, Planetside, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Second Life, and now Age of Conan… Some of these did well to capture my attention, some did very poorly. However, lately, it’s as if no games are capturing my attention at all! Not sure what that is about. I mean, the latest MMO I’m playing is Conan… Yeah, CONAN! I should be all over that like white on rice, but somehow I’m not…

The reigning theory is that the heat is rolling in and we all feel a bit lethargic. Gotta love the oppresive summers here. Well, I have thirty days on Conan and we’ll see how it goes. I might just stick to Angband… ;)