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A man gets married to his video game girl of his dreams. The man apparently held a reception with his friends and family.

I have a couple of questions to ask about this, the first being, wtf? the second, being "How's the honeymoon going to be like? The Third, is since it is a video game character, then what if other people own the same game and is romancing her? Is it cheating then? Okay, that was four questions, but this is definitely something wacky and caught me in left field. I suppose a necessary fifth would be why a videogame character instead of a real girl, but i think that covers the first question more.

Anyway, What do you think of this? Is it acceptable practice to marry a videogame character? Will we see this more in the future? Will they have kids? 

Back during the not too long ago there was an excellent gaming console called "Dreamcast".
On this console, there were great games that in my opinion were overlooked.
One of such games is The Typing of The Dead.

If you were horrible at playing The House of The Dead, wanted a quirky game, or failed keyboarding class because it was so boring, then TToD is for you!
Based of  The House of The Dead 2,  TToD takes you through the same place, except this time instead of guns, you play as agents with keyboards strapped to them, battling hordes of zombies and their ilk.


The best thing about this game is that there is an actual tutorial mode in which one can learn key finger positions, so as to type accurately, and on top of that, there are drill modes in which you can practice your worst keys, unlike the keyboarding programs at school that I remember.

The only really difficult thing you will find about this game, is that sometimes, you will come across words or sentences that will crack you up. For example on one of the bosses I was playing against, I  got:
"Use caution when pumping gasoline."
"Turn off the engine, do not smoke"
"Do not operate the flamethrower"
"Without proper supervision."
"Stock options have been very good to me lately."

All in all, this is a very fun(and educational) game, perhaps the most educational one I will ever play.
Sure, the game is dated, and the voice acting is bad, but aren't most dubbed Japanese games?
I would give it an 9/10, along with a petition to put this in all schools, since it is available on PC as well.

What are your thoughts?

World of Warcraft, the MMORPG with the largest subscription base ever known in its genre, is nothing special in terms of the MMO genre in my eyes. Here's why:

1. The Interface.



Look familiar? Of course it does.
These two MMORPGs, Ultima Online and Lineage 2 respectively, have the same interface as WoW.
Or rather, WoW has the same interface as these MMOs, seeing as both of them released before it.
So in terms of interface, WoW is nothing revolutionary.

2.  Gameplay.

In pretty much every MMORPG, you:
1.Create a character
2.Get your first quests
3. Level up to adquately participate in activities with your guild/faction/legion/linkshell/etc.
4. Do missions or the equivalent to find out the story to see where your character fits in it all.
5. Beat storyline.
6. Participate in endgame activities (or PvP if you so choose)

WoW is no different. Some may claim that it is less of a grind than other MMOs, but really, ALL MMOs will be grindy in some way or the other, so I don't complain about this.
WoW offers the basic classes to play: Healer,Tank,DPS,Buffer,and Generalist who has the potential to be a little bit of everything.
All of the other classes that have came out due to expansions, are simply combinations of the above. ALL MMORPGS DO THIS. The only reason why it may seem different, is by what weapon they're holding, or what kind of armor they are wearing. (Melee/Mage/Ranged)

3. Endgame.
 
There's endgame, the most grueling, time wasting experience of  any MMO, seeing as there is little gear to go around, and many people are wanting the same piece. This incorporates beauracracy and takes the fun out of the game.

WoW, is no different.  You spend the average time you normally would spend in a part-time job engaging in raids.
Once again, nothing special.

So what makes WoW special?
I'll tell you this awful secret, and it is also nothing special.
It's called commercialism, or advertising.
Blizzard is everywhere in terms of advertising. You see it on TV, you read about it in magazines, you see ads on the sides and top panels of every website that is gaming related about WoW. They even had their own special on South Park, and are endorsed by washed up celebrities.


 If other MMORPGS were more willing to shell out on advertising, I'd be more than willing to bet that their subscription numbers would raise signifigantly over the course of a year, which would pay for itself. Also secondarily providing a promotional benefit (gear, increased xp,etc) for a certain amount of time would easily hook new players and raise sub numbers.

So in conclusion, the only thing WoW has going for it, is heavy commercialism, due to the fact that no other games in its genre before it has done this. Its gameplay, interface, and endgame(i.e. the actual game itself) is nothing revolutionary, seeing as it is a mere copy of previous games in its genre.
(Don't get me started on the story line. That is an entirely different post.)

1. Always learn the rules. if you don't know them, then the player probably will, and screw you over.

2. In Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, they decided to make a page dedicated to grappling rules, but here's what you really need to know:

• To start a grapple, you need to make a melee touch attack as a standard action. Starting a grapple provokes an attack of opportunity, unless you have feats that say otherwise. 
• Creatures 2 size categories larger than you can't be grappled.
  
• An opposed strength check is no action at all to establish a hold. This will be your STR bonus +  D20+ grapple roll (and any misc modifiers) vs the player's.
• If the player succeeds in grappling, the opponent cannot move, and can only make opposed STR checks (as above) to get out of the grapple.
• While the player is grappling their opponent, each turn they succeed in holding the grapple (both player and opponent have to make a grapple check each round), they deal their unarmed weapon damage to their opponent.
• While grappling, you are flat footed to other opponents.

• If you lose an opposed grapple check while holding on to a foe, your foe automatically escapes.

3. Rule 0 anything that seems unfeasible, even if it is a fantasy game. Rule 0 means that something simply doesn't exist, or can't be done.

4. Watch out for power gamers. This would be people who can do crazy amounts of damage and are also hard to kill.

5. In spite of power gamers, there are also efficient gamers, realize the difference. Efficient gamers are good with what they have in terms of powers/spells/feats. Power gamers are unusually godlike.

6.  Being creative in RPGs as a DM usually trumps intelligence, although admittedly some common sense and basic math is required.

7. Status effects are a powerful thing in most games. Utilize these rarely. Poison is most common. Level drain/Stat drain  is VERY rare. The latter has a huge capibility to kill ANY character.

8. If there is something small that the book doesn't specify that the player wants to do in terms of non combat, rule in their favor.

9. Good DMing/GMing requires practice, some can pull stories and plot hooks out of their asses, some need massive amounts of notes. I have done both in moderation, but choose what's right for you.

10. Make it quirky and fun. nothing like something unusual and fun  to hit the players from left field to make it a good game.

11. DM PCs are usually frowned upon. My first and best one however, was a dwarf that was fully functional about 15% of the time due to penalties from perpetual inebration.

12. Decide before you make anything on the game whether you want to be realistic in terms of exp/gold, or be generous. I usually start a D&D 3.5 game with level 3 characters, and 2k gold instead of what the book says to give them. With Warhammer fantasy, I let them have an additional advancement(or talent) to the ones  they get at character creation, along with 10 gold/thrones.

14. To know the rules, you need copies of books. Ask the guys for ebooks or hard copies.

15. Some things you need to address when you create a custom world:

• How many nations are there?
• What is their geography made of?
• What race rules them? (There are few melting pot locales in medival fantasy)
• What is the races/nations ideology?
• How do those races/nations view other nations?

• What is an external/internal conflict with the nations?

Also, have fun. Hope that wasn't too encumbering.

I was looking up DOS games lately, because I've been kinda bored of playing all the new stuff.
I looked around, and found this website:
http://www.classicdosgames.com/index.html
They have several games to choose from, and some, are even based inside of the browser!
Ah reminds me of the good old days...

I've played Final Fantasy XI for 4 years, and have deleted my character as of a week ago.
So now, I feel the need to write a review.
I will only talk of the gameplay, since no one really cares about the story anyway. Plus, I wouldn't want to ruin the experience for you, its actually really good.
FFXI's gameplay isnt overly complicated, most of it consists of auto attacking like most MMORPGs.
However, one of the things that I enjoy the most about it, is that the interface is original to World of Warcraft.
FFXI's game screen:


WoW's game screen:


Your abilities are hidden unless you press ctrl or alt (Left  trigger/Right trigger for Xbox 360 or L2/R2 for PS2/3).
These are macros that are labeled however you want them to be, and in one button press, you can not ONLY say something (for instance, my provoke macro was "Hey <targetname>, I did your mom last night...for free!") but actually DO something as well.  I played as a Ranger for most of my FFXI career, and a lot of it was spent with one hand on the right side of my controller, pressing the R2+X button, and doing weaponskills when I needed to. (The other hand, was used to masturbate to my own awesome.)

Also, FFXI took a little bit of team play further by having 1 player in a group use a weapon skill, then 3 seconds later, if another member used one, it would create a "Skillchain" which causes extra damage, and an elemental effect. To get mages in on it as well, if mages casted a spell 3 seconds after the skillchain, the mage could make a "Magic burst" which dealt a tremendous amount of damage, especially if the enemy was weak towards that specific element. I remember one time when a group of mine did 4 skillchains to a boss monster, and the makes just magic bursted the little hp it had off.

What also made FFXI great is that you had an Oh shit/I win/Emergency button if things got out of hand, depending on what job you were. Sometimes they were useful, as in healing the whole party to full in a second, and others were less so, such as blowing yourself up.


I would like to address the complaints that I have about FFXI.
The biggest ones, involve drop rates, which are only enhanced by being thief, or getting certain items.
Thief with the right gear, and the items, has a 7.2% better drop rate than the average player.
(yes, there are 2 items that increase your drop rate by a decimal percentage.
The next biggest thing, is xp loss, and leveling down. FFXI would be deserving of a 10/10 rating if it weren't for these 2 things.
A slightly smaller thing, is that the game is group dependent. I had 3 people to deal with in this situation: The American players, The Japanese players, and the European players (I actually took up some Japanese in order to party/group with them).
American players are pretty selfish. Japanese players, are a bit snotty if you are American, but gain their trust, and they're friendships are golden. European players, just wanna have fun, and who can blame them?


One thing I like about FFXI as well, is that Thief is about actually STEALING things. too bad you can only do it once per 5 min.
But, you can buy thief's tools, which allow you to take treasure from any chest or coffer you want, without a key. This, is awesome.
Here's a rundown of the other jobs:
Warrior: Tank for 30 levels, then becomes a damage dealer.
Monk: Damage dealer, with high HP.
White Mage: The healer, that can revive characters and teleport.
Black Mage: The Nuker.
Red Mage: A support for all mage classes, and excellent soloer.
Thief: Steal stuff, and  sneak attack for great justice. An A+ soloer at higher levels.

After you get to level 30 in FFXI, you can quest to do advanced jobs, which are the below:
Paladin: THE tank class. Also can use white magic to cure themselves, and keep aggression.
Dark Knight: The Black Mage, with armor and  a lot better physical attack damage.
Beastmaster: A solo job, which charms monsters to fight against others. Also one of the best jobs to make money with.
Bard: a party buffer/healer.
Dragoon: a warrior which also has a wyvern to  fight alongide him(who can use breath attacks)
Summoner: Summons Avatars such as Ifrit, Shiva, Diabolos, and has the biggest MP pool of all the mages.
Ranger: A ranged damage dealer.
Corsair: A buffer that also deals damage.
Puppetmaster: Controls an automaton that you customize with various parts. Also a great solo job.
Blue Mage: Copies enemy skills, and uses them to their advantage. Good soloer.
Dancer: Melee debuffer that can also help the party out with its unique buffs.
Scholar: A more magically enhanced red mage.
Samurai: A melee damage dealer, that can use multiple weapon skills, creating their own skill chains.
Ninja: Not exactly what it was supposed to be, originally a debuffer/supporet, but now a tank.

All in all, since it did take my MMO virginity, I'll give the game an 8/10.
The game itself isn't bad, but the drop rates and leveling down system is mainly what in my opinion keeps it from getting a 10/10.

And as a last note, my ranger, being awesome.