I've been studying and thinking about a lot of other things - and those tend to lead to writer's block. I've been thinking about filling in with 4koma (like I did for a while), photography (which I also did for a while), writing a story (which I did a long while back). And then I suddenly thought about making a viable version of an application for table top card games. I thought, why not make a table top card game version with fully scriptable cards? Of course, if I did make one, the first target would be Magic, and Wizards would probably come after me - but hey, unlike the makers of Magic Workstation, I have no intention of selling it.
Magic Card: Sensei's Divining Top
I promised 3 years ago to write an article about the Sensei's Divining Top. I never did. Not until now, that I've realised that it has gotten banned in Extended that I realised that I should really say something about this great card.
It took me a while to collect a playset of these - and when I did, it went into every combo deck I made after that. Why was that?
Sensei's Divining Top was great for finding combo pieces - and it had incredible synergy with shuffle effects - another thing common in combo decks. Why was shuffling good? Every time you shuffled, you'd get to look at fresh cards after a Sensei's Divining Top activation.
What shuffle effects am I talking about? Cards called tutors often end with a shuffle. Tutors are cards which allow the player to search their deck for a card - following that, a shuffling of the deck to prevent people from knowing what your next few draws contain - something the Top does handily.
What makes this worse? Extra Tops turn into cheap ways to draw - and combined with shuffle effects, you don't have to pay the cost of drawing the Top next turn.
Unfortunately, this is exactly why it got banned. It got everywhere and started slowing down everything. Tops and shuffling effects were everywhere - slowing down gameplay and disrupting the smooth flow of the game. They concluded that it was something that was damaging to both the game and the metagame - resulting in a seemingly innocuous card getting banned.
I'm unconcerned - it's not an overpowered card, and I only use it in combo decks. No one I play with is really gonna complain. After all, if I do use an Extended-legal tournament deck, it'd probably be a whole can of whoopass they won't want to play against anyway.
(No, I haven't begun playing Magic again. There was little appeal to me past the Planar Chaos set - which only appealed to me because of the colourshifted cards.)
Why a D90 over a D60
Like just about every crazy purchase, you must have your excuses. (I won't say reasons, since they are indeed excuses.) There is are quite a few reasons why I bought this particular model, and I am quite sure many people, even Canon users can come up with them too.
1. Access to more lenses - the D90 comes with the AF motor needed to drive many older design lenses - using them could save you a fair bit of money over the equivalent newer ones. If you buy plenty of lenses, this pays for itself bloody fast.
2. Wireless flash system - the D90 comes with the ability to use wireless slave flashes - no need to lug around an extra flash like on the D60 to do the same commanding. (the extra flash can now be a wireless slave too!)
3. The ability to keep ADR on Auto at all times - this might not matter to most people, but this is a lifesaver on many occasions for a newbie like me. The overhead of ADR on the D60 is just way too high to bother.
4. Live view - no need to go blind when taking those high angle shots - you can now see what you're doing.
5. More buttons - the nikon D90 has plenty of buttons so you can change just about about setting that matters to you. No more weighing pros and cons of assigning the Fn button - instead you'll be busy looking for something to assign to the Fn button instead.
6. The screen - the 3 inch screen gives dSLRs what would probably be the biggest gripe of upgraders from p+s a big kick out the door. The screen is brilliant, sharp and shows you so much more. It's less a matter size than it is resolution.
7. Faster autofocus - it ain't the D300, but the AF system is faster than the D60, it is however more confusing to use. Coupled with a fast focusing lens - the camera feels crazy fast compared to the D60's occasional hiccup. (Of course, while it is indeed more confusing - it's faster - and actually means you can just point and shoot - less recomposing required. )
8. Movie mode - not really a reason for me, but it does mean i don't have to bring a p+s around to take the occasional video - i can just go all over the place with merely my D90 and 18-200 VR.
9. Better battery life - unlike the D60, the D90 does have an official battery grip for it, in addition to having a longer battery life to begin with.
10. Sensor - the sensor is ISO 200 to 3200, more sensitive than the D60. This essentially means better lowlight performance, not to mention this sensor should be highly similar to the D300 - giving us plenty of bang for our buck.
Scheduling Problem
Apparently, my site had a problem with whatever new scheduling implementation is in Wordpress 2.7. I didn't notice until today when I realised the post I wrote for 2 days ago didn't show up. Grrrr...
The Value of a Video Game: Part 3 - Multiplayer
Here's Part 1 and Part 2, in case you were wondering, or need a refresher after so many months of me having writer's block. Here's Part 3. Now, I don't particularly care much for multiplayer components of games, especially console ones. Having online multiplayer is new to me - and it'll take a while before it sinks in. For one, I'm not accustomed to having Internet connection on my consoles. This generation, everything seems to come with wireless. Except the XBOX 360. No surprise I still don't have an XBOX Live account. It's not like I didn't try - I did indeed try out playing Warhawk and Unreal Tournament III on the PlayStation 3 - it's just not my style to go off and play multiplayer games.
I'm not particularly competitive - so I won't go and practice an hour a day just to get good at killing random people online. I'd rather be reading a good book or solving a math problem. I didn't train up my FPS skills - whatever little I have is whatever little I'm going to have for a while. Sure, I used to be able to headshot regularly in Counter-Strike - doesn't mean I'm gonna go try and do the same in Left 4 Dead.
Speaking of Left 4 Dead, there are many games like it where the multiplayer counts a lot. Games like Left 4 Dead and Rock Band really shine when you've got friends to play co-op with. These games were built to be played with multiple players working together and they are a whole load of fun with friends and family. There are many other games like this - local multiplayer changes the game entirely - Nintendo makes plenty of these - Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii are prime examples of what Nintendo is capable of.
Arguably, that's kid stuff. MMO and most FPS games shine online in multiplayer. What's so funny? FPS games used to be one of the few things PCs did great - they still do great, just that console multiplayer is doing so well - not to mention, sales are way better too. This, of course, translates to more players - and more fun online than people with PCs have now. MMOs are still mostly domain of the PC gamers - and rightfully so: with so many free betas, free-to-play games - and the huge disk space requirements (ahem, WoW, for example) have put them off the console and their expensive certification requirements - for now.
The ability to patch games has made multiplayer a lot more possible for consoles now and in the future. Of course, this has led to us getting bugged versions of console games - but often, even buggier versions on PC. We could blame the fact on being able to patch - but I think the problem is less on being complacent due to ability to patch - and more that the games are getting more difficult to debug every day as they get more complex and difficult to make. (Although Fallout 3 was absolutely abhorrent to anyone except maybe the developers for crashing like a newborn baby trying to drive a jet plane.)
Well, there have been numerous efforts to bring another multiplayer favourite, the real time strategy genre of games to the consoles. Halo Wars, Endwar - and even console versions of C&C3 and Red Alert 3! Without a question, RTS games are most certainly multiplayer domain - although most of them come with a great and rewarding single player campaign to play through all by themselves. Let's face it - the point is to pummel your opponent with your massive (or occasionally, reasonably sized) army. And the best opponents? Other humans.
There's no doubt multiplayer holds loads of value for a gamer in a video game - not to all of us - but most certainly for most of us. And yes, in case there was any doubt - there will be a part 4. ;)