Slapgadget

I just got billed for my Star Wars The Old Republic subscription, which means I've played through my 30-day free trial. I have a level 50 Sith Sorcerer and I'm putzing around with a teens-level Trooper on the Republic side. Overall its a great game, it has all the hooks I want in a game that I'd be willing to buy a 6 month subscription to (which I did to get the lower monthly prorate), but there are some fundamentals that are broken.     PvP should not be forced on a PvE server - I love that I can alter my character's appearance, via my choice in gear, without the negatives of the gear I like being not as powerful as… Read More

I've had the pleasure of not only attending but Enforcing both annual PAX East conventions that have been held thus far. Karli and I have absolutely loved going to Boston each year. Its a great weekend getaway for us, and the things we've seen and the people we've met have been awesome. Unfortunately the next PAX East is the weekend of April 6-8, 2012, also known as Easter weekend. I'm not going to begin to even try to understand all of the scheduling and logisitcal work that happens behind-the-scenes when it comes to picking dates for something as massive as a PAX. Even in their own words… Read More

So I tempted the bitter mistress known as World of Warcraft, and I have walked away unscathed. Lenny gave me a code for a free 10 day trial, which then linked our accounts so if we were playing grouped together we both would get like a 50 percent bonus to the XP we earned. That was kinda cool, leveled like crazy one night. And I have to admit the voice chatting in Ventrillo was handy. But after a week I noticed a very familiar pattern. Hack random monsters, run quest for random NPC, loot, sell loot, die, recover body, buy slightly less crappy gear, run your ass across the map, repeat. Hey…where I have done all this before? Oh yeah, for three… Read More

The boys’ last report cards were good (in one case a vast improvement from his prior report card), so we got them Nerf guns as a reward. Logic being outside toys for summer versus video games or inside stuff. Ryan picked out one that shoots green balls, and Connor and Jacob got ones that shoot foam darts, N-Strike CS-6 Recons. Well the grown-ups also got their hands on them, Karli quickly found the joy of firing at squealing boys that are using each other as human shields. It took me all of 24 hours before I went out and got my own, and quickly discovered the massive community… Read More