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[The Facebook Chronicles] Starting from Scratch: Days Zero and One

March 1st, 2010 · Feature

For a reason or two, I have decided that I wanted to delete my Facebook account and start over. There’s just one problem – you have to wait up to 14 days for your account to be deleted. Though it took me ages to get into Facebook, once I did, it became an almost always open tab, even when I wasn’t using it. Which meant that giving up on it might be a bit difficult.

To hopefully help me ease the burden, I’ve decided to keep a log of my experience. It won’t be updated too often – maybe once or twice a week – but hopefully it’ll keep me on track and make sure I don’t go back.

The Facebook Chronicles

Aaron never realized how he thought of his life as a series of Facebook statuses.

Day 0 (The False Start)

Aaron needs to start from scratch.
Aaron is deleting his Facebook account.
Aaron wishes that it wasn’t so hard to understand the options menu when it’s written in Pirate.

Day 1

Aaron may have had a false start when he didn’t understand the distinction between “Deactivate Account” and “Delete Account”, but he has faith that he can do this.
Aaron never realized how he thought of his life as a series of Facebook statuses
Aaron didn’t think it would be this hard to give Facebook up for such a short time.
Aaron keeps getting drawn back to it, like a moth to a flame.
Aaron has a legit reason to get drawn back to Facebook this time, really.
Aaron is writing a log to keep that from happening a third time.
Aaron is writing a log to keep that from happening a fourth time.

→ 1 CommentTags:facebook

[Review] Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

February 16th, 2010 · Review

Since 2006, fans of the Ace Attorney series have been standing for justice in a world where people are guilty until proven innocent. We’ve turned case after case around when we thought all was lost. But honestly (don’t lie to me now), you’ve wanted to know what it’s like to be a prosecutor, right? Finally, after four games spent behind the defense bench, we get to find out what it’s like to be on the other side of the courtroom, in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

Well, not exactly.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Sure, you get to play as Edgeworth, the famed prosecutor from earlier entries in the series. But instead of fighting defendants like the dastardly and annoying Phoenix Wright, Investigations tells the story of a two or three day period where somehow, Edgeworth finds himself wrapped up in a series of oddly-connected cases. It doesn’t exactly earn the “Perfect Prosecutor” subtitle people were giving it the second the game was first announced, but it’s still fun to get a chance to play as Miles Edgeworth.

When Edgeworth questions suspects and witnesses, he brings some of his courtroom sensibilities into the outside world. Someone gives testimony; he presses them until he finds the information he needs, and then, when he finds a contradiction…

Investigations also brings in a new system to complement the courtroom proceedings, called “Logic” (in an example of that good ol’ Ace Attorney humor, when Edgeworth mentions it for the first time, Detective Gumshoe replies “How do you use it [Logic]?”). Whenever Edgeworth notices something interesting that isn’t evidence, he takes note of it in his mind. Then, when you find pieces that seem to match together, you go to the logic menu, pick the two items, and see if they combine into the idea that’s needed to solve the case. It’s a fun addition, one that I enjoyed, without straying to far from what already works.

But something’s missing in the Investigations experience. It never really gains the same excitement that the other entries in the series did, and ultimately, I never felt as involved in the cases. Although the plot revelations sometimes surprised me, none (or at least, very few of them) ever made me (for lack of a better phrase) completely freak out when I realized what was going on. Maybe I’m getting jaded? But I think there’s just something that this entry in the series is missing that the others don’t.

And also, believe it or not, Investigations is actually feels more linear than any of the other entries in the series. In the other Ace Attorney games, you had the “freedom” to go from location to location, talk to who you wanted when you wanted to. It was an illusion, since you still had to complete certain tasks before you could get anywhere, but there was still a perceived sense of freedom. In Investigations, you’re often constrained to one location at a time, two tops, being forced from one place to the other as the story demands it.

I’m… still trying to figure out what exactly it is that I don’t like about Ace Attorney Investigations. All-in-all, it’s still a pretty good entry in the series. But it just doesn’t grip me the way the other games have. Things are too short-term to form any attachment to; you rarely have the same partner for more than a short while; a really cool sub-system that gets introduced partway through Case 3 rarely sees any play after that.

(If I were to really think about it, this is all a side-effect of tying the cases together. Part of what made the other games great is the way they introduced and built on a group of characters throughout a series of unconnected cases, then ended with an amazing finale that threw things out of whack for the characters that at this point you knew and loved – like a season of a TV show. Investigations, meanwhile, spends so much time on the plot that you don’t have time to get attached to the characters, even the ones you already know. It’s like a plot-driven miniseries in that respect. It’s ironic, because trying to make it a tightly-woven story ends up making it feel less connected. That is irony, right?)

Would I suggest this game to fans of the series? Probably. It’s fun and has plenty of callbacks to previous entries that you’ll find it entertaining. But if I wanted to get a newbie to the series hooked, I would start with one of the other games.

One Twit’s Opinion
Hits: More of that Ace Attorney humor, “Logic” is a cool subsystem, some favorite characters come back.
Misses: Accessibility to new players is questionable, less-gripping story, possibly too easy.

Miles Edgeworth does his civic duty, and little more, in Ace Attorney Investigations.

Follow @onetwitsopinion for reviews in 140 characters or less

FULL DISCLOSURE: I received a free copy of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth to review.

→ No CommentsTags:ace attorney·nintendo ds game review

[The City] Secrets of the City – Deus ex Machina

February 13th, 2010 · RPG Bloggers Network, Settings

Before there was the City, there was a village. They worshipped Aren, the God King, the Benevolent Master, the creator of Fire and Ice and everything in between. They would send him tribute, and in return he gave them protection and ensured their success.

Then the elves of the forges came to the city, bringing with them the technology they had crafted under Azarad’s guidance. They propelled the village forward, and soon, the City grew expanding from its core. Aren was all but forgotten, the shrines formerly dedicated in his honor retrofitted to house the furnaces that powered the city.

Aren was forgotten. But he was not gone. Weakened without the power of his followers, he existed only as a wisp of energy trapped in the physical realm. Turned into a wisp, the Benevolent Master swore revenge on those who had forsaken him.

As a wisp, he travels from machine to machine, possessing them and taking control. His ultimate goal is the Great Furnace in the center of the City - formerly his largest shrine, and now the largest power source in the City. When he reaches it, he hopes to use it to destroy the City from the inside out.

In his current form, he is weak, and is unable to travel for very long. In the meantime, he attacks everyone who he can and lures others to his side. As his followers grow, so too does his strength – until he inevitably gains the power to attack the City at its core.

→ 3 CommentsTags:pathfinder·the city

[Review] Gamebook Adventures #1: An Assassin in Orlandes

February 12th, 2010 · RPG Bloggers Network, Review

I don’t have a lot of experience with iPhone apps (I’ve played with maybe three or four), but I know have one that’s high on my list of favorites. An Assassin in Orlandes is a digital gamebook for the iPhone and iPod touch – it’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but where you occasionally roll the dice. But since it’s written for the iPhone, it’s got all sorts of cool tweaks that make it work for the platform.

Gamebook Adventures #1: An Assassin in Orlandes

The story takes place in Orlandes City, the capitol of Orlandes, where the Grand Duke is finding his relatives being killed one by one. Your character happens to witness one of the murders, he gets wrapped up into the mystery and is forced to investigate when his ex-girlfriend is kidnapped by the assassin. The story is well-written, and stands up to multiple readings (which, believe me, you will have to sit through), although after a few times through you do get bored of it. There are a few plot threads that I don’t know if I didn’t find out where they led, they were intentional red herrings, or they just didn’t go anywhere; however, they didn’t detract too much from the adventure.

The system is pretty simple. Your character has four stats: Vitality, which is rolled at the beginning of the game and are your hit points, Offense, which starts at 2 and is dependent on your weapons, Defense, which starts at 2 and is dependent on your armor, and Fitness, which is rolled at the beginning of the game and represents your agility. When you’re in a battle, you roll a number of six-sided dice equal to your Offense score while your enemy rolls a number of dice equal to their Defense score. If your highest number exceeds their highest number, then you hit for damage equal to the sum of all your dice. Then the enemy takes their turn. In addition, you can try to double the damage of your attack (or halve the damage of an enemy’s attack) by rolling two six-sided dice and getting under your Fitness score.

One problem I noticed with the system is that it doesn’t scale well when people get more Offense and Defense dice. The more dice each side has, the more likely that someone will roll higher, or even the same, as the highest dice the other person rolled. Since there’s no tie resolution, this means that fights can simply go on for a while. It’s saved my character’s bacon more times than I can count, but the battles can only go on for so long before each dice roll goes from tense to tedious.

Of course, this is all mostly automated by the game so you don’t really need to know how the system works if you don’t want to. But it’s more fun to know what the computer is doing than to watch in confusion as it does it.

There’s a lot more replayability than I would expect from an app like this; for one thing, since it isn’t a real book, you can’t just flip back a page whenever you reach a dead end . But in addition to that, there’s a ton of content. There’s 78 different endings (how much you wanna bet most of them end in death?), or so I’m told, since I haven’t made it nearly far enough to know. Plus there’s art to collect, and my favorite, achievements, for things like finding a mad cannibal that lives under the city, or rolling three ones in a single roll.

There are a few odd glitches here and there – once, my character didn’t sober up over night, and I’m convinced that that’s the reason he died shortly after. Also, the option to roll the dice failed to pop up a few times, so I had to tap somewhere else before I could roll. It also crashed once while I was turning a page – it was early on in a new game, so it didn’t do much, but it didn’t save the file, so that would be a problem further on in the game.

EDIT: Tin Man Games has already written to me about this issue. The “drunk/sober” issue was resolved in the 1.1 update to the app that was pushed to the App Store today. They’re currently working on resolving all other issues.

But my favorite part of An Assassin in Orlandes? The “#1″ in the title. There’s plenty of time for Tin Man Games to iron out any issues between this and the next gamebook. While you’re waiting for that, though, why don’t you give this one a look? It’s only $4.99 in the App Store, and that’s a lot of bang for your buck.

Hits: Interesting story, surprising replay value, gamebooks redefined for modern technology.
Misses: A few odd technical glitches, repetitive music, system doesn’t scale.

One Twit’s Opinion

Assassin in Orlandes is a first, slightly flawed entry in a promising revival and modernization of the gamebook genre.

Follow @onetwitsopinion for reviews in 140 characters or less.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I received a free copy of Assassin in Orlandes to review.

→ No CommentsTags:gamebook adventures·iphone app review·ipod touch app review

[Review] Cthulhutech – Mortal Remains

February 10th, 2010 · RPG Bloggers Network, Review

I was recently given the opportunity to review the Cthulhutech books as part of a carnival, and since they were something that I’ve always been interested in, I quickly jumped at the opportunity. Much has been said about the game as whole, so I’m going to focus on what I have been assigned to review – the supplement Mortal Remains (for those of you interested in more Cthulhutech, there’s a list of links at the bottom).

Mortal Remains is a setting book focused primarily on the New Earth Government, the governing body in charge of the entire planet in the year 2084, when Cthulhutech takes place. It’s a government of war, and knows little else, besides a few years of piece between two major wars with aliens from other planets.

One interesting thing that I really enjoy about the setting is that although the NEG may be oppressive, it doesn’t fall into all of the same tired clichés that seem mandatory for a dystopian setting. At the time when it is described in the book, it is right on the precipice of an important decision – whether or not to let the current President run for his third term, despite what the law says. It could lead to dystopia, but it could also be saved (to a certain extent), and I think that distinction makes it a much more compelling and interesting setting.

I’m not a huge fan of how the information is presented, though. It gets awfully specific, awfully fast – for example, diving right into the structure of the government with little prelude, followed by a similar description of the Armed Forces. I’m sure there are some people who are interested, but I don’t think it’s helpful to learn the tactics of the New Earth Government Armed Forces while I’m still trying to learn what they are.

There is very little crunch, which in my opinion is a good thing. Besides a few new drawbacks and assets, there are some vehicles for both the NEG characters to use and for the Migou (the aliens that have invaded Earth) to use. Which leads me to the next thing in the book – there are rules to play Migou characters inside. A bit out of place in a book focusing on the New Earth Government, but still pretty interesting.

Mortal Remains is a great book for anyone who wants to add more depth to the New Earth Government in their Cthulhutech game. I could even see it being helpful for those who just want a resource on an oppressive government, if you can ignore all the alien invasion and Cthulhu Mythos stuff (I think you can). It’s a bit dense on information, but if that’s what you’re looking for, then it’s certainly worth it. It’s available at RPGNow for $15.00 (Affiliate Link).

Want to learn more about CthulhuTech? Read on…

WildFire: CthulhuTech Quick-Start Rules
Atomic Array: Episode 013: CthulhuTech RPG
Mad Brew Labs: CthulhuTech: The Game That Almost Wasn’t
Critical Hits: When Horror Meets Awesome: CthulhuTech
Kore Dice: Interview with CthulhuTech’s Mike Vaillancourt
Stan!: The Stars Will Be Right
Arcane Underground: The Saga of CthulhuTech (Updated)
Atomic Array: Episode 040: CthulhuTech
Blog of a new RPGer: [Review] CthulhuTech “Dark Passions”
allgeektout: [Review] CthulhuTech - Mortal Remains
Stargazer’s World: Review: CthulhuTech Damnation View

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was given a free PDF of Mortal Remains and the other Cthulhutech books to review by a third-party.

→ 1 CommentTags:cthulhutech·game supplement review

[CES 2010 Wrap-Up] The CES 2010 Geekies!

February 8th, 2010 · Feature

So, I was trying to think of how to do a wrap-up of my opinions of CES this year, without making it a plain boring article. Sadly, the best alternative I could come up with was an awards article. So without further introduction, the Geekies:

Most Tiring Gadget. I. Am. Sick. Of. 3D. TVs. Before CES, I thought they were a cool idea that was mostly a gimmick. After CES, I have lost any scrap of interest I may have had in them. That’s what happens when companies push a product too hard.
Most Useful Gadget. Technically wasn’t on the show floor (though they had a suite at the Hilton) – the Livescribe Pulse Pen. I’ve had the review unit for a little while, but I haven’t had a chance to play around with it until CES. This thing is amazing - It records what you write and what you hear, and links the two together (it does more, but that’s the part I like). Useful for reporting, probably for education as well, but I’m curious if it has much potential outside of those two areas.
Greatest Fail. My performance at the Build Your Own PC Race for Charity this year. Not only did I make a mistake that ended up in me being further back than ever before, but it’s the exact same mistake I made last year. Clearly, I do not learn from my own mistakes.
Greatest Disappointment: Sony. They announced a new design for their products which they called “monolithic”, had it descend from the sky, and didn’t play Also Sprach Zarathustra. Complete missed opportunity there. Let me help them out a bit:

Biggest Crowd. I don’t really recall correctly, but I’m pretty sure the biggest crowd was the line for Pauley Perrette, aka Abby Sciuto from NCIS. Allegedly, people started lining up as soon as the floor opened, a good 4 hours before she appeared. A bit of a side note, earlier in the week, Stan Lee also appeared at the same booth, the Marvell booth (they make semiconductors, not comic books).
Biggest Surprise. Apparently I’m a Palm fanboy now? It seems pretty obvious to me now, but when I realized it it was pretty surprising to me.

→ No CommentsTags:ces 10·Pauley Perrette

[The City] Religion of the City – Three Gods

February 6th, 2010 · RPG Bloggers Network, Settings

The Gods of the City are not constant. They are ever-changing, subject to the whims of those who dwell within. There are three ways they form and gain power:

Pure, unadulterated belief in their power.
Adherence to an ideal that the deity embodies.
A physical representation of the deity that has been blessed by a cleric.

Since the Shift, many gods have died, others greatly weakened, and even a few have been created. Unfortunately, this has led to a great amount of tension and bickering within the pantheon of the remaining gods, each worried to lose whatever little power they have to another.

Because of the way they are formed, anyone can believe in any deity and they generally can be “right” about their beliefs. However, there are a few core deities that form a central pantheon that is widely acknowledged and (more importantly) respected within the City. In particular, three gods are revered (and feared).

Azarad, the god of artifice and madness. The source of power for most of the technology that powers the city. He is said to live at the top of the mountains where the elves make their forges, and that his energy is what brings their inventions to life. He also has a reputation as a dangerous and wild god, though not intentionally. He mutters nonsense words and phrases from atop his perch, and each one manifests its way on the material plane in some way or another, be it through an elf’s invention, a cleric’s spell, or a twisted piece of clockwork. All the other gods keep a close eye on him, in case he says anything that might require divine influence (and perhaps will help them regain some of their fame and power).

Laywen, the goddess of ice and snow. Before the Shift, she was one of the most beloved goddesses, the fire of her heart keeping people’s hearths lit, and her breath melting the snow when wintertime ended. But when the Shift came, altars to her husband, the king-god Aren, were replaced with furnaces and machinery, and her warm heart froze. Her power now comes from those who whisper her name in fear, and those who hope her icy breath will never touch them.

Ruman, the fierce, but detached, god of war and battle. His existence in the City is a bit of an enigma to some, as there have been no other cities or kingdoms to be at war with. But he finds his strength in the secret war that lies underneath most people’s notice. The constant struggle within the upper echelon of the government is only part of a much greater battle for control. However, to this day, nobody has been able to gain an edge in the battle – perhaps because no side has found an offering great enough to entice Ruman to their side.

→ 2 CommentsTags:pathfinder·the city

[Opinion] How I Became a Palm Fanboy

February 4th, 2010 · Links, Opinion

[Note: This was originally posted on TechFlash as a guest post; I have kindly been given permission to repost it here.]

I’m not entirely sure when it happened. It probably started a while ago — after all, I’ve been eagerly checking the PreCentral blog for the WebOS news for months now. I’ve been toying with Palm’s software development kit (though with limited success) since it was leaked. And when I was covering the Consumer Electronics Show for Scholastic last month, I rearranged almost my entire schedule to make sure I could get to the Palm press conference.

Somehow, I’ve become a Palm fanboy. Yes, that Palm. You know, the one behind the PDAs and the Palm Pilot? The one whose name became synonymous with “business”? The one that many thought was on the verge of collapse before it made waves at CES last year with its “revolutionary” WebOS software? Not a company with a lot of fanboys, I know. That’s why I’ve been trying to figure out how exactly it happened.

The funny thing is, I never really meant to get a Palm Pre. When it was announced last year at CES to rave reviews (Best of CES 2009, if I recall), I somehow missed it, so I didn’t get swept into all the hype. I was actually interested in getting an Android phone, but someone who knows about this kind of thing more than I do told me that Sprint wasn’t likely to pick up an Android phone. So instead I started looking at the Pre, and I liked what I saw.

(A few months later, the HTC Hero, an Android-powered phone, was released on Sprint’s network. But that’s beside the point. I’m happy with my decision.)

So what is it that I like about the phone? I’m really a big fan of the whole “card” metaphor. Running multiple applications is pretty handy, but more importantly, I love being able to flick stuff off the screen when I’m done. There’s nothing to learn; it works the way it intuitively should. Much cooler than having to learn an entirely new interface.

There’s also the way Palm keeps on pushing the devices beyond what I thought was possible. To be honest, I doubted that my Palm Pre would be able to run the 3D games they showed off at their CES press conference. Just a week ago I downloaded a demo for Asphalt 5, a racing game, and I was surprised to see it not only ran, but it ran smoothly! Sorry for ever doubting you, Palm. Giving people more power without forcing them to upgrade their device is a great way to make sure they keep coming back to you.

And yes, there are some obvious flaws with the Pre and WebOS. Palm is miles behind anyone else when it comes to apps, because they took too long getting out the developer’s program (and now, the Plugin Development Kit that enables 3D games like Asphalt). A lot of the really cool things that the phones are able to do require tweaks and hacks, which aren’t particularly easy to find or use for the average consumer. But I’m capable of looking past all of these flaws, because, after all, I’m a fanboy.

Okay, so I don’t know exactly why I’m a Palm fanboy. But does it really matter? Being a fanboy isn’t a rational decision. It’s the unashamed love of something regardless of any faults it might have. There’s no way to actually find out exactly why I’m a fanboy, I just am. There’s nothing more to –

Oh, wait, strike that. Now I know when I became a fanboy. When they announced there would be Oregon Trail for the Pre. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to make sure my family doesn’t die of dysentery.

→ No CommentsTags:palm·techflash·webOS

[SPUC] Week of February 3, 2010

February 3rd, 2010 · Secret Project Update Club

Didn’t get to update last week, because last week was terrible. This week isn’t so hot either, but I have time to make an update.

Codename Backup Dancer – Came up with a unique way of presenting it that means writing it may be more entertaining than I originally thought – which is always a plus. A bit worried it might be too gimmicky for the sake of being gimmicky, but if it helps me make progress, than so be it.
Codename Power Struggle – Unchanged.
Codename Collegiate Level Pets – Unchanged.
Codename Urban Spirits – Unchanged.
Codename Four Contemporary Equestrians – Unchanged.
Codename Atomica – Unchanged.
Codename Memory Banks Intact – Unchanged.

Excuse of the Week: Umm, excuse me? Do you not see that I actually got something accomplished? No excuse needed, even if I only came up with it today!

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[Opinion] Other Videogames That Should Be Turned Into Pen and Paper RPGs

February 2nd, 2010 · Opinion, RPG Bloggers Network

Yesterday, I was having trouble coming up with a blog post, so Stargazer suggested I riff off of his “Videogames that should be turned into pen & paper RPGs” post. Instead, I did that today. So… yeah.

However, Stargazer beat me to a lot of the good CRPGs, so I decided to look to other genres to see what might make good tabletop games. Here’s what I came up with.

Bioshock

A Bioshock RPG would cover a lot of ground to suit all kinds of gamers. For those who are fans of hack and slash gameplay, there’s Rapture after the fall. For those who enjoy roleplaying, well, Rapture was hardly a picnic before the plane crash landed.

Plus it implies some interesting mechanics. ADAM is a tremendous boon to a character, but at a terrible cost. It would be pretty interesting to have some mechanics that backed this up.

The one weakness, of course, would be the setting being limited to the city of Rapture, but that’s hardly a weakness considering the depth of the city (no pun intended).

Ace Attorney series

It might be a bit of a stretch, but I love the gonzo characters of the Ace Attorney series and the problem solving. There are some systems designed for crime solving, but I don’t know if they work the same way Ace Attorney does (although, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth doesn’t even work the way Ace Attorney does). The more I talk about it, the more I see flaws in the idea of an Ace Attorney RPG… but that doesn’t keep me from wanting one. I mean, come on, how many players have wanted to shout “OBJECTION!” at their GMs (Judges)?

Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan

Hmm… my list seems to be leaning towards the DS. Oh, well. Imagine an RPG where you can delve into the layered and complicated lives of those who fight misfortune with music. Discover the true motivation behind the organization. Find out more between the rivalries of America’s Elite Beat Agents, and Japan’s Ouendan – and what caused the feud behind them so many years ago.

Okay, this last one is a bit in jest. But now that I think about it… there’s got to be a reason that you never see the two groups of agents in the same place. Perhaps something happened in the past? Now I’m really interested.

Any non-CRPGs you would like to see in tabletop form?

→ 7 CommentsTags:ace attorney·bioshock·elite beat agents