Four Days. That’s it. I honestly thought that once my account was linked I would get quite some time to lock down my Guild Wars character names. Let’s see, I have 10 character slots in Guild Wars with the majority of characters being over five years. Guild Wars 2 comes with 5 character slots… perhaps? I have four days to decide how many character slots to fill with old names or risk losing them. Or, in profitable terms, I have four days to decide how many character slots to buy.
via killtenrats.com
:(
Wait, I have to sign a contract to play the game that I just paid for? Do I need to get a lawyer? Can I do something in the game that could get me into legal trouble? I mean, I don't plan on playing public games or anything -- just me in my computer room, killing evil and screaming curse words until I lose my voice.
But I convinced myself it was nothing to get worked up about. It's just there to save their asses in case some random jackoff finds a way to make money off of them via lawsuit. Fine. I got through them all and was immediately taken to a screen that pulled the alarms from the back of my mind directly to the front, and cranked up the volume to "nuclear attack" levels.
No. No, no, no, no, no ... No.For the six of you who just discovered the Internet today, that's a login screen. It's commonly associated with multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft and ... whatever other multiplayer games exist. Except there's a problem: Diablo III isn't a traditional MMO. You don't sign in to the game and immediately find yourself surrounded by a hundred other players shouting racial and homophobic slurs. You are in your own world. By yourself. Single player.
It is a single-player game with multiplayer options, just like all the other Diablo games. If you choose to play with your friends, you can. If you choose to join public games, you can. Otherwise, you're on your own -- and contrary to what MMO fanatics believe, this is the way millions of gamers prefer it.
via cracked.com
So the gamerfolk in my office have been squealing Diablo III! Diablo III! That is, when they're not wandering around like zmobies from not sleeping. As one of these gamerfolk, they give me a shocked stare when I explain that while I'm sure that Diablo III is a polished nugget of Blizzardliness, I have no intention of purchasing it because I don't like where Blizzard has gone since Activi$ion showed up and ate them.
They think I'm silly. And maybe I am, but hey, at least I'm not silly enough to buy a polished game from a company I have ceased to believe in. Except, of course, GW2.
PWE is different, I have never believed in them. I have, however, admired their ruthless sexy evil. ;) That's another thing altogether.
Two or three short sentences, followed by a long one are a great way to get people reading.You get their attention. Kid them it’s an easy read. Then hit them with a few dirty facts in the third sentence, before they know they’re cornered. Then you start it all again. Quicken the pace. And ram another juicy fact down their throat.
This - this is beautiful. The entire article is worth reading just for this. It's been quite a while since I've read copywriting advice this good - most copywriting articles IMO tend to be fluffy and generic. Maybe because they're not actually written by good copywriters. ;)
People write about leaders
how to become one
what it takes to be one.
They focus on what to do
what to say
how to act.
They don't talk about why.
Why people lead -
why people follow.
Love.
Love is why people lead.
Love is why people follow.
Having someone tell you,
'this is the way to go'
'this is how we'll do it'
and then having that someone *be* there
when it goes right -
and when it goes wrong.
Having that someone say,
'hide behind me,
I will shelter you
beneath my wings.
If there are prices to be paid
I will pay them.
For you.
Because I believe in you.
Because you are worthy.'
There is no greater love
than a man lay down his life for another.
And for the receivers of that love,
who amongst us will not follow
such a giver?
Courage, conviction, vision,
these virtues are named, time and again.
But what upholds them
makes them possible
is love.
To be a leader
is to love.
No, I don't know where this came from. It sorta fell out while I was thinking about management, mentoring, and all that stuff. Also I blame Teshness as quoted in a previous post about work and love as an oblique factor!
Guild Wars 2 Beta: Nugget's Interview with ArenaNet
by: nuggettyone
...yeah I guess I am a lot more disappointed and upset than I thought.
via theoatmeal.com
<.< No one ever said love was reasonable. (I'm having to leave the other kitty behind. T_T Yes, the quiet (psycho) one.)
Find a job doing what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.
It’s my experience that this is not only shallow and semantic, but the philosophy is actively bad for long term health.
There are a few aspects to this:
- Turning a love or hobby into a job is effectively ceding control of that interest to those who write the checks. Whether you’re working for The Man as a cog in a machine, or The Herd as an entrepreneurial wizard, you’re still tying your love to money. That always changes things. And, as the EASpouse storm made more aware, and this story of Free Radical underlines (hattip to Anjin), passion is easily exploited by unsavory management, canny to optimize assets and maximize revenue.
<...>
Find a job you’d be happy doing, so you can pay for the things you really want to be doing.
Sorta dovetails with how, when I conducting interviews (when I've been in the position to) - passion is all very well, but what I want is *professionalism*. What I want (in terms of interviewees) is more along the lines of passion for doing a good job, rather than passion for the field itself.
Disclaimer: I'm not a habitual coffee drinker, don't really like the taste of most coffees.
I experimented with cold-brewing some store-brand ground coffee a few weeks ago, and the result was rather pleasant to my ugh-its-coffee sensibilities. Very similar to a good oolong, only far more concentrated.
The nuggetboy though, is a mad coffee gulper, so when a Balinese colleague went home for the holidays, I got her to buy me some kopi luwak. It's much cheaper if you buy it back in Bali - the 50g bag of ground kopi luwak she got for me cost about US$15 - and a Balinese native is going to be able to get the authentic stuff.
Having brewed up this coffee and had some, both the nuggetboy and the nugget agree that the taste is incredibly similar to cold-brewed coffee, only of course, it's hot!
...so to all you coffee-gulpers out there who've tried kopi luwak - what's the big deal? It's so similar to cold-brewed (to my unrefined palate) that there's basically no difference - other than how you can have it hot. Is that it? If you like cold-brewed coffee, but want it hot, kopi luwak is your solution?
Because otherwise, it seems silly to pay that much for coffee when you can get a very close equivalent by using a store-brand and cold-brewing. Not to mention, you don't even need sophisticated equipment to cold-brew. A french press and some disposable tea-bags will do. (The tea-bags are for better coffee filtering.)
More stuff on the Interwebs about kopi luwak from an actual coffee drinker.
P.S.: Nuggetboy's review, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth that I was making him drink POOP COFFEE OMG POOP COFFEE was, 'Yeah, it's pretty good. Very smooth.' >.> While that's not a bad review, I'm still not seeing where the omgbestcoffeefeeintheworld is coming from.